SAYLES BISHOP D. D. 3 .1.&J0 "2SW PRINCETON, N. J. *jfc Presented by OYa £• CAv-A-VViO y~. Division Seel 'ion 6/£ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/doctrinesofgraceOObish { ' \ ^^^k " » i i 1 mKm 0 1 \ P f ^ nw ■dr wj^t'J^ fmm U^V | ^^4* » r \ 1 .- ;_.. 1 ^ *4,^ *•-«■„ ^ ZTbe Doctrines of (Brace : ant> *inbrei> Ebemes BY THE REV. GEORGE SAYLES BISHOP, D. D. Pastor Emeritus of the First Reformed Church of Oraage, N. J., Vedder Lecturer for 1885 aid President of the General Syaod ia 1899 Sutus Vtclutore pontes New York GOSPEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 64 West Twenty-Second St. 1910 Copyright, May, 1910, by The Gospel Publishing House, To the Members OF THE Jfftrfit Rtftxvmtb (Etjurrlj, ORANGE, NEW JERSEY. Dearly Beloved : Permit me, to offer you again these Sermons delivered in your hearing ; with devoutest thanksgivings to Almighty God for the priceless Gospel they contain ; and with most tender and grateful ac- knowledgement of the helpfulness and sympathy of her, without whose self- devotedness I could not have remained for more than thirty years your Pastor. CONTENTS. Page. Preface 3 1 The Ultimate Appeal 7 2 The Testimony of the Scripture to Itself 19 3 Inspiration of the Hebrew Vowel- Points 43 4 The Principles of Revision 60 5 Relative Value of the Old Testament 88 6 Cosmogony in Genesis joi 7 Jonah — the Keystone of the Testaments 119 8 Difficulties in the Bible 131 9 The Bondage of the Will 144 10 The Doctrine of Grace 153 11 The Doctrine of Election True 167 12 A Popular Talk on Election 179 13 The Justice of God in the Permission of Sin 192 14 Reprobation 206 15 What God Cannot Do 223 16 The Atonement 235 17 Imputation, Adam and Christ 249 18 Substitution, or Business Principles in Atonement 260 19 Grace and Works 272 20 The Woman of Samaria or Effectual Calling 283 21 The New Birth a Mystery 295 22 Kept from Falling 306 23 Will Believers Come Into the Judgment 319 24 Watch— The Second Advent 332 25 The Sweep of Time — , 346 CONTENTS. Page 26 Why Did God Create ? 375 27 Christian Science 389 28 Enthusiasm, or Paul Beside Himself 402 29 Are There Few That be Saved? 414 30 A Plea for Revival 425 31 Shut Up to Faith 438 32 Faith Victorious Over Death Written on the Promise. . 449 33 Nicea: The Story of Arius, Another Higher Criticism Man 460 34 James Arminius; or False to His Trust 474 35 The Creed Principle in Religion 478 36 The Shadow Side of Solomon 498 PREFACE. It is by many assumed and indeed most confidently asserted that the Doctrines of Grace ; as preached by Augustine, Anselm, Calvin and the great Reformers — have had their day — are superseded by the breadth of modern thought — are held, in their original integrity, by no one now ; nor can they now be put, as they were put four hun- dred years ago, with hope of conviction or chance of suc- cess. It is in honest and earnest dissent from such an opinion — an opinion sufficiently confuted by the marvelous power and success of men like Charles H. Spurgeon, Caesar Malan, Robert Murray McCheyne and the great leaders of the Scottish Free Church Disruption — that the following dis- courses are republished, as they and others have been delivered during a ministry of more than forty years, to the edification of thousands and the conversion of scores and hundreds of souls. There are but two religions on earth. One based upon the postulate of Free Will ; the other upon that of Free Grace. The two mutually annihilate and replace one an- other. For, if a man is saved in any way, either in whole or in part, by the exercise of his own will, he is not saved only by God's will ; and if he is saved only by God's will — i. e., of pure grace, he is not saved by his own. Divine Election, therefore, underlies religion as it underlies Revela- tion. "It is," says Toplady, "the golden thread which runs through the whole Christian System. For, what Cicero as- serts of human learning — when he says; Omnes artes quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione quadam inter se continentur. The whole circle of the arts has a kind of mutual bond and connection, and by a certain reciprocal relationship are they held and interwoven together — can be more exactly as- serted of Divine Election. It is the one bond which unites and keeps together the entire Christian System ; without which, it were a system of sand ever falling to fragments." If our race possesses a free will to do that which is good, then faith is an act of my own and from me, and I may 4 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. relinquish or lose it. There is thus no certain salvation. If, on the other hand; Man fallen can do nothing but fall and cannot will upward ; then, God must interpose to give him that will in the counter-direction. But, then, in that case, he is saved by God's will and not by his own. And that is Election. In other words : God must begin. His must be the first impulse and movement. What are all the after influences of God, no matter how potent, if it remains with the man to put himself, or not, under those influences? Does not the man, and not God, in that case, decide his salvation? Is he not, in fact his own Saviour? If man begins, con- tradicting St. Paul, he "makes himself to differ" and is, in fact the author of the "new creature.'' In other words, he becomes his own God and his Free Will is set up like Dagon over against the Ark and is, henceforth his Idol. For to be the author of the new creation is a greater thing than to be Author of the old. There is therefore no anknupfungspunkt — no point of contact between free will and free grace. They are diametrical opposites. The Scripture says that men are dead in sin. Can a dead man will anything? Can a corpse decide its own destiny? In one way, it can. It can work out its own dissolution. The other way, it cannot. It can destroy but not save itself : it cannot give itself the vital spark: "Salvation is of the Lord." The religion of free grace therefore gives the lie to that of free will. The only freedom possible to fallen man is freedom to sin and freedom from holiness. "But why insist on a point which is, after all, an abstrac- tion?" Simply because it is not an abstraction; for the man who trusts his free will is a lost man whatever may be his attainments in virtue. His Pharisaism : his contend- ing the point of precedence with God: his obstinate holding to his own ability, will damn him. God is determined to save by free grace; the man is determined to save himself by free will. He is trying to stem Niagara by swimming. Without rescue from outside he will be swept down. This is the great controversy which is abroad in the world and which decides destiny, as it divides mankind. Does God save me, or do I, by the use of grace common to all, save myself? Does God have all the glory — the undivided THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 5 glory; does He by a Sovereign Election and choice make me, from unwilling, willing? Or do I elect my own self and initiate salvation, and will because I have power? And do I still contend it that men can come to Christ without the "drawing of the Father:" that from unwilling they can make themselves willing without any "day of God's power :" that it is of him that willeth and of him that runneth whether or not God sheweth mercy, and that the carnal mind is subject to the law of God and indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh can by trying hard, please Him ! This is the great controversy which man has with God — a controversy in which man must be put clown and his ability to will annihilated and he lie dead in full surrender at the footstool of a Sovereignty which hath mercy on whom it will have mercy ; or he must continue to stand up and brave God and fight to the last for the power of his self-reversible will and go down to hell a lost man. The defence of the Doctrines of Grace is therefore a defence of religion. Should these doctrines cease to be preached, religion would become a shipwreck and the Church an apostasy. The reason of the present ominous and alarming declension in opinions and morals — the reason why the Church cannot get the ear of the world ; why she has no practical power to transform, is because she has no supernatural voice — no "Thus saith the LoydT — no deep and tremendous conviction. Ethics can be preached without the Holy Ghost. So can any system of Moral Reform what- soever; but Regeneration — the doctrine which lays man stark helpless before God — shut up to a faith which is the gift of mere Sovereign distinguishing grace — is a doctrine which calls for the Spirit of God who alone can breathe true conviction ; who alone can quicken the dead and say to countless dry bones which lie bleaching at the mouth of the Sepulchre — "Live!" in the cyclone and sweep of a mighty revival. As well preach to the mummies of Egypt as preach to unconverted souls without the Holy Ghost. The Sovereignty of God in Salvation ! This is the npcSrov SsjueXiov the Ground and Base of the Gospel, How shall we lift the masses if this fulcrum be removed? How shall the doctrine, either, prove its potency without that 6 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. all prevailing prayer which "thunders in the ears of God and brings down copious blessings from on high?" The return to Calvinism is a return to first principles and to "first love." It is the slinging again of the five smooth stones from the brook which brings down proud Goliath, the mighty self-inflated giant of free thought, in the pres- ence of the weak-kneed armies of Israel. It is the multi- plication, by the power of God's Spirit of five poor barley loaves which means the feeding again and again of hungry five thousands. It is the echo of that trumpet of the Holy War whose no uncertain Summons calls "the sacramental host of God's elect" from lethargy to life; from victory to victory ; from conquering to conquer. If the Lord shall deign, in any least degree to own and bless again the paragraphs which follow ; ours shall be the mercy, HIS ALONE THE PRAISE. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. THE ULTIMATE APPEAL. Isa. viii :20. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Religion, from re-ligo "to bind back," must have some- thing to tie to. It must have a foundation, a basis, an ulti- mate appeal. What is that appeal? Some say, to consciousness; man finds God by consulting himself ; what tallies with himself is Divine. God is humanity colossalized. This is the religion of nature. It will account for every vagary, from the myths of Paganism to the self delusions of Theosophy and Christian Science — for everything from Homer to Huxley. Some say the appeal is to tradition; to the decree of Councils ; to the Fathers ; to an authority lodged in the Church as a Divine corporation breathed in, guided, made in- fallible by the presence of the Holy Ghost. This is the doctrine of Rome — a doctrine which binds to a system assumed to be supernatural, but shifting as the decrees of councils have shifted; contradictory as the statements of church fathers are conflicting; blind and confusing; a congeries of truths and errors ; of affirmations and denials ; of half lights and evasions, from Origen to Bellarmime. The third appeal is to a Book in its two Testaments, from cover to cover, Infallible; without contradiction, without confusion and without mistake; in every chapter, verse and letter inspired, imperative, direct, divine. The Bible is the basis, measure, criterion and test of true religion. That which binds back to God is the Word which came from God ; a Revelation and authority which speaks from heaven compelling the conscience and subjugating the will. "Thus saith the Lord!" is our apology and our appeal when, as ministers of Christ and prophets bearing the credentials of His high commission, we address ourselves to men. "To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." The Bible like the world stands upon nothing. It is its own self-evidence — its own imperial assertion. It is the voice of 8 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. God which waits for no defence; for no endorsement, but which claims submission. To receive it is salvation — to reject it, trifle with it, question it is to make shipwreck of the soul. The Bible is a direct Revelation from God — a voice speak- ing from heaven. How is that evident? i. From its uniqueness: the Bible differs on its surface from every other book. It speaks a Trinity in the very roots of its verbs, every one of which is, in the Hebrew, composed of 3 letters— tri-literal. It teaches man's apostasy and restoration in the singular reversal of its text. The Hebrew is written and read from right to left; from God's right hand where He doth work, is man's departure. Then the Greek takes him up, a prodigal son at his remotest distance from God and brings him back from left to right — from death to life again. Incarnation is in the Tetra- grammation; that is the Hebrew "1 letters of the word Jehovah ' "W t 1 written vertically from up to ' *y down give us the outlines of the ( human figure — God made flesh. "— *i This is the difference between j J Elohim, God in creation ; and ' ■ God in covenant anticipating in- carnation. Again: the Bible puts man's true relations in the very conjugation of the Hebrew verb. In all occidental languages the verb is conjugated from the first person to the third— "I," "Thou," "He." The Hebrew, in reversal of the human thought, is conjugated from the third down and back to the first : beginning with God, then my neighbor, then myself last — "He," "Thou," "I." This is the Divine order self obliterating and beautiful. Again: The Bible is divine in its perfect self-consistency, — in the comparison and harmony of spiritual things with spiritual. Ponderibus librata snis : everywhere it is equally balanced in its teachings and its mighty words. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 9 Again: The Bible is divine in its illimitable Comprehen- siveness. The Hebrew language has no present tense. The present moment is but a vanishing point. The Bible lives in an Eternal now. Infinitely above man, the Bible is let down to man who is "but of yesterday and knows nothing." The Bible is divine in its Arithmetic. Everything in the universe is built on numbers. We say, "Figures will not lie." Numbers are in the Bible and everywhere each bears the same significance and indicates the same relationship. Numbers are in the Bible. Criticism is confronted by the fact. Does criticism dare deny that God is in the fact? Does criticism dare assert that there is not, at work in the Scripture, the grandest Mathematician of all — God cipher- ing out the problem of destiny? Take some of these num- bers. 3, which always stands for Trinity and trinal relation. 4, which designates human nature in its possibilities and weakness — the four corners of the habitable globe. 5, re- sponsibility to God as seen in the five senses — the five fingers of the right hand. So Israel went up out of Egypt, "five in a rank." So the height of the hangings of the Tabernacle looking upward was five cubits. Take further: 6, always one short of perfection. 7, the Mediator's num- ber 3 and 4 united — God and man, Redemption complete. 8, a new octave — resurrection. 10, a double five — ten fingers on two hands — ten commandments, responsibility to God and man. 40, trial, probation — forty years of Moses in the wilderness — forty days on Sinai — forty days of tempta- tion for our Lord. These meanings are unchangeable. Let him who denies it, try to change them and make them any- thing else if he can. To do so he must change the 6 fingers and 6 toes of Goliath, the 6 pieces of his armor, the 600 shekels weight of his spear's head, the 6 cubits of his stature which lay prostrate under David's sling and stone. To disprove the meaning of the 6, the critic must deny the 66 cubits in the height of Nebuchadnezzar's image and the 6 cubits of its breadth as it goes down before the smiting Stone. To disprove the meaning of the 6, the critic must go on to deny 666 to be the number of that Anti- christ, typed by Goliath and by Nebuchadnezzar, who falls before a greater David and a greater unhewn Stone — "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth io THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. and destroy with the brightness of His coming/' Let the critic stand in front of the black-board which displays these figures, and laugh at their absurbity if he can. If he can- not laugh, let him be silent and wonder and adore. The Bible differs from every other book in the Perpetuity of its text — that it is written in the only two languages which — dating back of all tradition are recognized as living vehicles of thought to-day. The Greek spoken in the streets of modern Athens is the same Greek to its very accents as is that of Xenophon, and of the Iliad which was penned three thousand years ago. The Hebrew of the Talmud is the Hebrew of Genesis. Marvellous survival, and miracle of God ! The Egyptian of Rameses has perished. The Assyrian spoken by Rabshakeh is gone but the Greek spoken by St. Paul on Areopagus finds echo still beneath the Arch of Hadrian and the sacred languages in which God wrote, like the cloven tongues of Pentecost flash still a living fire while their archaic characters, unworn and undecayed by time, lie moveless and immutable at the foundation of all that can pretend to solid learning or a liberal culture. With- out them, Theological Seminaries and Colleges as well, are without the guarantee or hope of either prosperity or in- fluence or permanence. The Bible is the one Book in the world which can be read only in the light of supernatural illumination.* In this, it stands unique, exclusive, singular, isolate. Other books, Plato, Shakespeare, Bacon, Descartes, can be under- stood as well by the natural man as by the spiritual, — but no natural man can know the things of the Bible but by the Holy Ghost who wrote the Bible. The natural man, even the wisest, the most learned of natural men, sticks in the letter. He gets no further than the text. The most il- literate peasant taught by the Spirit sees more of God in His Word than does the greatest philosopher, or the pro- foundest technical theologian who is without that teaching. The Bible is a light which requires an additional Light. "In Thy light shall we see light." "Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." "Then opened He their understanding that they might un- *"No man sees one iota in the Scripture," says Luther, "but he that hath the Spirit of God." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. n derstand the Scriptures." A man may have the Bible and read it through 10,000 times and the letter may kill him. Unitarians have the Bible but they cannot see Christ in it. "For what man can know the things of a man if he has not a man's spirit in him? Even so, the things of God cannot any man know if he has not God's spirit in him" (1 Cor. ii:2). Regeneration determines theology. The Bible is unique, apart from every other book in its Self-evidence. When the sun shines you do not fly to a laborious argument to prove there is a sun ; or that sun- light is irradiation. The sun speaks for himself. He sim- ply says, "I am the sun." He needs not to say it, he shines it. So the Word of God. The Koran does not on the face of it say, "I am divine !" It does not glow with God from its pages. So neither does the Zenda-Vesta or the Book of Mormon. But the Bible shines tvhat it is. It asks no apology ; its voice is its claim. We take the ground that when one hears the Bible he knows by instinct that it is the Word of God — he recognizes its celestial tone. We take the open ground that a single stray leaf of God's Word found by the wayside, by one who never had seen it before, would convince him at once that the strange and wonderful words were those of his God — were Divine. The Scriptures are their own self-evidence. We take the ground the sun requires no critic — truth no diving-bell. When the sun shines, he shines the sun. When God speaks, His evidence is in the accents of His words. How did the prophets of old know, when God spoke to them that it was God? Did they subject the voice that shook their every bone and made their flesh dissolve upon them, to a critical test? Did they put God, so to say — as some of our moderns seem to have done — into a crucible, into a chemist's retort, in order to certify that He was God? Did they find it necessary to hold the handwriting of God in front of the blowpipe of anxious philosophical examina- tion in order to bring out and to make the invisible, visible? The very suggestion is madness. Inability to comprehend the words of God does not arise from their obscurity and 12 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. our weakness, but from our wicked aversion to things most plainly uttered. "The light shineth in darkness and the darkness does not even know that it is light." The Bible is a Divine Revelation. It is to be handled with awe. It is to be received on the knees of the soul. 2. The Bible speaks with authority. It claims to be Divine. It is not man's utterance. It is everywhere, "Thus saith the Lord !" Twenty six times in the 27 chap- ters of Leviticus, the formula is repeated : "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying." Moses then was but the record- er of what the Lord said. Evolution says the world came out of a fire mist. Genesis tells us that the heavens and the earth were an instant creation — that God spake and it was done ; that He com- manded and it stood fast. 35 times the word God appears in the 34 verses which complete the account of creation and end with the Sabbath. God created the heavens and the earth; God created great whales; God created man in the image of God ; God created the seed before it sprouted in the earth, etc., etc. These 35 repetitions — these 35 asser- tions of God are 35 red hot cannon balls between the eyes of evolution. Before them, like Goliath, it falls to the ground. The Bible speaks with authority — "This is the Judge that ends the strife, Where wit and wisdom fail." The Bible is unique — the Bible speaks with authority — then 3. The Bible meets the soul's suprcmest need. It does this because it deals with 3 infinites, — infinite holiness ; in- finite guilt ; infinite atonement. Infinite holiness. God is holy — utterly and absolutely holy. But, if holy, God is just, for justice is a part of holi- ness. But, if just He is of purer eyes than to behold in- iquity. When I look up to God I see infinite holiness — whiteness which penetrates my black soul with horror. For I am guilty. I feel it, and the more I look down into -myself, the more do I feel it. I find that I am not only a sinner, but sinful — that it is in me to sin and that the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 13 tendency downward is a fact irreversible ; depravity is a pit that is bottomless. That is the second infinite — infinite guilt. Here then are two infinites directly opposed. Up there, God. Down here, my soul. How can they be reconciled? The never to be stifled cry of the awakened spirit is: "How can God be just and justify the guilty?" The Bible and the Bible alone answers that question. It brings in the third infinite. One as near to me in my nature as he is to God in the Divine, has come in between us. "See God our Shield !" A screen is interposed between the infinites, as infinite as they. The question of my aching heart, which all the universe outside it, could not answer, the Bible answers when it whispers, "He is our Peace." But when Immanuel's face appears, My thoughts no comfort find ; The holy, just and sacred Three, Are terrors to my mind. But when Immanuel's face appears, My joys, my hopes begin ; His name forbids my slavish fears, His grace removes my sin, 4. As the Bible meets the soul's supremest need, so it re- veals a method of salvation which man could never have imagined and which shown to him, he cannot consent to receive. For the Bible teaches that we are justified by another man's merits — in other words that we can have no merits of our own but must consent to be accepted only on the ground of what Jesus the Son of God has suffered and done. Not another book in the world has ever taught or sug- gested such a notion as this. Last winter, in Egypt, I read a treatise written in the time of Rameses II, by Ptah- Hotep, one of his Counsellors of State. It went to show how a man can be right with God. He must make himself right. He must be just, true, virtuous, temperate. In other words, the book written by an old Egyptian 4,000 years ago taught salvation by ethics. That is what Socrates 14 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. taught, what Zoroaster taught and Confucius. That is the doctrine of the world and even where Christ is accepted the doctrine is still : "We must do something ; we must do our part ; we must trust Christ and do the best we can, then God will accept us." The Church of Rome teaches that Christ by His suffer- ings merited a grace for us, by using which, we may merit and so be accepted for what we have done. This doctrine of being saved either in whole or in part by our doings is the doctrine of every unregenerate man whether so-called Christian or Pagan. The Bible shows itself Divine by showing a Diviner way. It shoves man from the platform and replaces him by a Substitute — what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, Christ has done and done wholly. Adam lies dead and we in him lie dead in trespasses and sins — Christ stands on resurrection ground — and faith, a single, simple, solitary act of faith — by one bound transports us to His side. Adam disobeyed the law ; we disobey it. God insists that we shall keep it perfectly. He cannot insist upon anything less. We cannot keep it perfectly. Then Christ does it for us. Christ for 33 years — the period of a human lifetime, was, under the law, keeping the law to make for us a record. He earned heaven for us on the principle, "Do this and live" — Christ did and we plead His merit. I get heaven simply on the ground of Christ's perform- ances.— His righteous life. His obedience reckoned mine, is my obedience. But — that righteousness of Christ for me, is based on expiation. Give me a righteousness, yet what becomes of the sins that I have committed? They must be washed out in blood for "without shedding of blood is no remission." That also I find in my Substitute. "For sins not His own He died to atone." As the old Puritans put it, "Jesus was all His lifetime gathering and beating small the golden threads with which to weave the seamless robe of an imputed righteousness THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 15 and in His death He dipped that robe in the vermilion of His blood." The Bible doctrine is that Christ makes up all liabilities, for us, to Godvvard. All, all our righteousnesses are but filthy rags and He is all our righteousness. "By Him all who believe are justified from all things." The one act which saves us is a simple risk and venture upon Christ. "Upon a life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die, Another's death, Another's life, I risk my soul eternally." The Bible proves itself to be Divine, because in it wre have God's thought higher than man's thought; His "way abolishing ours in salvation. The Bible proves itself Divine because in it we are taught that we are saved out and out, by simple suspense on Another — that, to Godward, Christ is all in all and no man anything at all. "When He from His lofty throne, Stooped to do and die, Everything was fully done, Hearken to His cry. " 'It is finished!' yes indeed, Finished every jot, Sinner, this is all you need Tell me, is it not? "Weary working plodding one, Wherefore toil you so? Cease your doing; all was done Long, long ago. "Till to Jesus' work you cling, By a simple faith, Doing is a deadly thing, Doing ends in death. 16 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "Nothing either great or small, Nothing, sinner, no, Jesus did it, did it all, Long, long ago. "Cast your deadly 'doing' down, Down at Jesus' feet; Stand in Him, in Him alone, Gloriously complete. "When you know that you are saved, Trusting in the Blood, You will live to Him who died, Yielded up to God. "Gratitude is all our life, Merits none have we, Filthy rags our righteousness, Christ alone our plea." 5. Now let us take' a broader survey of the Scrptures and find still further confirmation of the fact that they are divine. (1) Look at their continuity. "Not without Blood." A scarlet thread binds the Bible together from cover to cover. The Blood begins to flow at Eden's gate. It grows in mighty volume down the long line of sacrificial rites to Cal- vary. It gleams again in the "Lamb Slain" whom John beheld in the midst of the throne. Through every rope of the British navy there is twisted a single red cord. Cut any rope and you will find the cord. So through the 66 books of the Bible runs the Scarlet line of Atonement. Open any book and you will find a Bleeding Saviour. Rev- elation in its continuity and in its parts is one and the same. (2) The Bible glimpses its Divinity in unsuspected hints and singular coincidences. Take for iexample, the 5th chap- ter of Genesis — a chapter which one might rashly call the dryest of genealogies. Yet there you get that sublimest pilgrimage and prophecy of Enoch and his wonderful trans- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 17 lation, when he walked and walked with God until we see him walk azvay with God. More than this, the chapter in its very names gives us a forecast of redemption. Adam, "man made in the image of God" — Seth, "substituted by" — Enos, "man frail and sinful" — Cainan, yes and "sorrowing" — Mahalalccl, "the Blessed God" — Jared, "shall come down" — Enoch, "teaching" — Methuselah, "His death shall bring" — Lamcch, "the despairing" — Noah, "consolation." (3) Again — the Scope and Final Teaching of the Book is to reveal and justify a Secret Providence. The teaching of the world's literature is pessimistic — Virtue suffers and is always struggling but at the last is defeated, — Circumstances — Fate overcomes her.. What can be sadder for example than the last interview of Hector and Andromache pictured by Homer at the Scean Gate of Troy? This scene has been eulogized by classic scholars as one of the noblest ever painted in words — Yet look at it. Hec- tor is to go out upon the field of battle — probably to die. "Oh Hector," sobs Andromache, "you are my all — more than father or dear mother or brothers and sisters whom I have lost in this terrible war. What shall I do if you fall ?" Hector replies — "Yes I shall fall and you will be carried away captive and will be a slave to draw water in a far away land. I shall not help you for I shall be in my tomb." "But, Hector, what shall I do?" "You must go home and occupy yourself with household cares. These will help to distract you — They are your best comfort — Meanwhile we are in the hands of a relentless fate." That is man's view of life — The view of all the Greek tragedies, Euripides, Sophocles, Eschylus — It is the view of 9 out of 10 of all our modern novels — even though they are written under the light of the Gospel. "It is of no use — Cheating prospers. The good man goes to the wall — The right-minded girl succumbs beneath too great a temptation. Righteousness may reign but not in this one — in some other world." Now take the Bible view-point — Evil may succeed for a moment — but the devil is cast down — Adam falls but falls to rise again to bliss immortal — David flees as a partridge to the mountains but all the while is on the wav to the throne 18 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. — Messiah suffers — but before Him is the prospect of un- utterable triumph. The Bible makes the future of those who trust in God a glorious, shining way that "shineth more and more" — "Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning." "Let him who sows in sadness wait Till the fair harvest come He shall confess his sheaves are great And shout his harvest home." God will wipe away all tears from all eyes — God will bring light out of darkness — meat out of the Eater — honey from the Rock. "God will help me if I fight his battles, and He will bring me back crowned with honors to your dear arms — Christ will be with you and we are always His !" This what the Christian Hector says to his weeping Andromanche. A secret Providence ! How beautifully Calvin wrote of a Secret Providence ! Take Joseph — Had he not been cast into the pit, he would not have been sold into Egypt — Had he not been thrown into prison he would never have interpreted the Butler's dream nor gone into the presence of Pharaoh nor have made the Second Ruler in the Land of Egypt. Take Esther — Had not Haman thrown the lot for Adar 12 months ahead the Jews would have been cut off before the King's posts could countermand the decree — Had not King Ahasuerus had a sleepless night, Mordecai's service would never have been recognized nor would he have sup- planted Haman in the affairs of Persia — and there would have been no Purim which the Jews observe to this day. Secret Providence — "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not — I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. All things are working to- gether for good to them that love God" — Oh Divine Book — Oh Peerless Revelation — "When I went into the Sanctu- ary then understood I, their end." THE DOCTRIXES OF GRACE. 19 THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURE TO ITSELF. Hos. viii :I2. ''I have written to him the great things of My Law." The Bible is the very handwriting of God ! Suppose I believe that. Suppose, instead of Luke and John and Paul and Peter. I behold in overawed imagination "God grasping the pen" and setting down the sentences, the words,, the jots and titles — every stroke of it; does not that fix me ? does not that arrest me ? does not that determine, shape, and mould me, as no conviction other, lesser, can? That is the Anchor to which, by twisting a few honest strands, I would help, if I may. to rebind our cables. When we were resting quietly inside of Sandy Hook, our own ship and others swung round with the tide, but none changed its place, for all were well anchored. The ships of sentiment are swinging loose to-day. and with the counter tide. That has been, and it will be, again and again, so long as human opinion is the vacillating and uncertain thing it is. But we need not fear, for the old anchor holds as firm, as steady, as inflexible as ever That anchor — back of all departures, heresies, and fluc- tuations— is the literal, direct. Divine inspiration, on the original parchments, of the Word of God. We cannot consent to see in the Bible the pens nor the penmen ; but, undistractedly. the Master Intellect, which everywhere directs each thought. We must maintain with Justin Martyr, with Chrysostom. and with Theophilus of Antioch, the illustration of that "harp" on which the Spirit breathes, ''the strings of which He touches to evoke each vital tone." We must "adore" with Athe- nogoras "the Being who has harmonized the strains, who leads the melody, and not the instrument on which He plays. What umpire at the Games." he cries, "omits the Minstrel while he crowns the lyre?" 20 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. The mistake of moderns, and especially of recent mod- erns, has been "crowning the lyre." The whole question of Inspiration has, within the last half century, been made to turn upon the writers. It has been unhinged from those stanchions on which St. Paul makes it turn — the Writings themselves. This misdirection of thought would seem to be much like that of the boy who stands at the end of the tele- graph line and gets a message from his father ("I have written to him the great things of My Law"), and who, instead of taking the message as direct, authoritative, final, goes to work to discuss the posts, the wires, electricity, the key-board, the touch of the finger, the process. His business is simply to heed and obey. The doctrine of direct, dictated, verbal Inspiration — that everything in the Bible was set down by the finger of God — has these five things in its favor: i. It is the first, original, and oldest doctrine. 2. It is the siinplest doctrine. 3. It is the nndeviating doctrine which has proved the bulwark of the Church of God. Defended in the earli- est centuries by men like Athenagoras and St. Augustine — defended still by men like Wickliffe, Huss, and Luther in the struggles which led in the Reformation — and, in post-Reformation times, defended by men like the Bux- torfs, John Owen. John Gill, and Gaussen — it has been the one, consistent, inexpugnable, permanent doctrine from the beginning. Scripture — sunlight to the sun — is the untarnishable radiance of God. What it says, God says. 4. A fourth fact is the logical impossibility of any other counter position. "If we do not take direct Inspiration," says Waller, "what we are to take is not so clear." If we begin to admit inequalities in Revelation, where shall we stop? If we turn our attention away from the writing to occupy ourselves with the writer — his genius, his knowledge, the amount of assistance required — who does not see that this descent from heaven to earth, from the high Himalaya of the Divine to the low, marshy ground of the creatural human, must tend to gravitate, to minimize, and more and more, until your Bible is reduced to Shakespeare or (who THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 21 knows?) to Bret Harte. The fabricators of degrees in In- spiration— the men who so self -confidently set forth to us their four classes, — the inspirations of "elevation," of "superintendence," of "suggestion," of "direct dictation," — tell us themselves that the last is the highest. Ah well ! we will choose — we will cling to that highest. Why not? If dictation anywhere — in any one instance, then dicta- tion all the way through. If not, why not? Where are the limits ? Where shall we stop ? Suppose certain words in the Scripture — only a few — to be put there by God. Suppose this admitted, and it is admitted — who shall define the number of those words? Who shall as- sume to stand up and tell us where God the Holy Ghost ex- presses Himself in the very form of the word and where He retires from the word and leaves it a shell merely human? The difficulties attaching to any other view of Inspira- tion than the Verbal are simply overwhelming. Suppose that something, no matter how little — whatever you please — be left to the writers themselves, and who shall satisfy us that nothing essential has been omitted, nothing irrele- vant or trifling has been emphasized, nothing inaccurate has been set down ? Who does not see that, so, inspira- tion is utterly lost? 5. And that leads, logically, up to the climacteric position, that we must hold to Verbal Inspiration, or if not, at last — give up the Bible. What other result can there be? Is not this just what it comes back to — "I receive what ap- peals to my likings, I repudiate what I dislike?" In other words, I make my consciousness my arbiter; my prejudice, my Book; and my self-will, my God. The subject which has fallen to my lot in this discussion* is, The Testimony of the Scriptures to themselves — their own self-evidence — the overpowering, unparticipated wit- ness that they bring. Permit me to expand this witness under the following heads : *This discourse was first delivered in Philadelphia at an inter- denominational conference in which the author represented the Dutch Reformed Church. 22 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. I. Immortality. II. Authority. III. Transcendent Doctrine. IV. Direct Assertion. V. The Casket of the Gem — the very Language in which Revelation is enshrined. I. Immortality — "I have written!" All other books die. "Most of the libraries are cemeteries of dead books." The vast perennial literature falls as the leaves fall, and perishes as they perish. Few old books survive, and fewer of those that survive have any influence. Even to scholars the names of Epictetus and Lucretius — of the Novum Organum — of the Nibelungen Lied, convey nothing more than a title. They have heard of those books — have skimm- ed a page or two here and there, — that is all. Most of the books we quote from have been written within the last three or even one hundred years. But here is a book whose antemundane voices had grown old, when voices spake in Eden. A book which has sur- vived not only with continued but increasing lustre, vitality, vivacity, popularity, rebound of influence. A book which avalanches itself with accretions, like the snowball that packs as it goes. A book which comes through all the shocks without a wrench, and all the furnaces of all the ages — like an iron safe — with every document in every pigeon-hole, without a warp upon it, or the smell of fire. Here is a book of which it may be said, as of Immortal Christ Himself — "Thou hast the dew of thy youth from the womb of the morning." A book dating from days as ancient as those of the Ancient of Days — and which, when all that makes up what we see and call the universe shall be dissolved, will still speak on in thunder-tones of majes- ty, and whisper-tones of light and music-tones of love — for it is wrapping in itself the everlasting past — and open- ing and expanding from itself the everlasting future: and, like an all-irradiating sun, will still roll on, while deathless ages roll, the one unchanging, unchangeable Revelation of God. II. Immortality is on these pages, and Authority sets here her seal. This is the second point, a Standard. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 23 Useless to talk about no standard. Nature points to one. Conscience cries out for one — conscience which with- out a law constantly wages the internal and excruciating war of accusing or else excusing itself. There must be a Standard and an Inspired Standard — for Inspiration is the Essence of Authority, and authority is in proportion to Inspiration — the more Inspired the greater the authority — the less, the less. Even the ra- tionalist Rothe, a most intense opponent, has admitted that "that in the Bible which is not the product of direct inspira- tion has no binding power." Verbal and direct Inspiration is, therefore, the "Ther- mopylae" of Biblical and Scriptural faith. No breath, no syllable; no syllable, no word; no word, no Book; no Book, no religion. We hold, from first to last, that there can be no pos- sible advance in Revelation — no new light. What was written at first, the same thing stands written to-day, and will stand forever. The Bible, the true fact beneath the Grecian myth, springs into light Minerva-like, full armed. The emanation of the mind of God — it is complete, perfect. "Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." Its ipse dixit is peremptory — final. What can be more awful, more stupendous than the sanction which rounds up the Book, by which it is secured and sealed and guarded? "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book : arjTai? "anciently and all the way down, in the prophets." One may make, if he pleases, the iv instru- mental— as it is more often instrumental — i. e., "by" the prophets ; but in either case, in them, or by them, the Speaker was God. Again : the Scriptures say that the laws the writers promulgated, the doctrines they taught, the stories they recorded — above all, their prophecies of Christ, were not their own ; were not originated, nor conceived by them. — were not rehearsed, by them, from memory, nor obtained from any outside sources — were not what they had any means, before, of knowing, or of comprehending, but were *"God" was manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. 16. 36 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. immediately from Gocl; they themselves being only recip- ient, only concurrent with God, as God moved upon them. Some of the speakers of the Bible, as Balaam, the Old Prophet of Bethel, Caiaphas, are seized and made to speak in spite of themselves ; and, with the greatest reluctance, to utter what is farthest from their minds and hearts. Others — in fact all — are purblind to the very oracles, instructions, visions, they announce. "Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify !" i. e., the prophets themselves did not know what they wrote. What picture can be more impressive than that of the prophet himself hanging over and contemplating in sur- prise, in wonder, in amazement, his own autograph — as if it had been left upon the table there — the relict of some strange and supernatural Hand? How does that picture lift away the Bible from all human hands and place it back, as His original Deposit, in the hands of God. Again : it is said that "the Word of the Lord came" to such and such a writer. It is not said that the Spirit came, which is true; but that the Word itself came, the Dabar- Jehovah. And it is said : "Hayo Haya Dabar," that it substantially came — essentially came "essendo fuit" — so say Pagninus, Montanus, Polanus — i. e., it came germ, seed and husk and blossom — in its totality — "words which the Holy Ghost teacheth" — the "words." Again : it is denied, and most emphatically, that the words are the words of the man — of the agent. "The Spirit of the Lord," says David, "spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." St. Paul asserts that "Christ spake in him" (2 Cor. xiii:3). "Who hath made man's mouth? Have not I, the Lord? I will put my words into thy mouth." That looks very much like what has been stigmatized as the "mechanical theory." It surely makes the writer a mere organ, although not an unconscious, or unwilling, un- spontaneous organ. Could language more plainly assert or defend a verbal direct inspiration? Yes, but in only one way — i. e., by denying the agent. And that denial we equally have from the lips of our Saviour. "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. Take no thought how or what ye shall say. The Holy Ghost shall teach you what ye ought to THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 37 say" — both the "how'' and the "what" — both the matter and form. In a line with the fact, again it is said that the word came to the writers without any study — "suddenly" as to Amos (chap, vii :i5) , where he is taken from following the flock. Again : When the word thus came to the prophets they had not the pozver to conceal it. It was "like a fire in their bones" which must speak or write, as Jeremiah says, or consume its human receptacle. And to make this more clear, it is said that holy men were phcromcnoi, "moved" or rather carried along in a supernatural, ecstatic current — a dclectatio scribendi. They were not left one instant to their wit, wisdom, fancies, memories, or judgments either to order, or arrange, or dispose, or write out. They were only reporters, intelligent, conscious, passive, plastic, docile, exact, and accurate re- porters. They were like men who wrote with different kinds of ink. They colored their work with tints of their own personality, or rather God colored it, having made the writer as the writing, and the writer for that special writing; and because the work ran through them just as the same water, running through glass tubes, yellow, green, red, violet, will be yellow, violet and green, and red. God wrote the Bible, the whole Bible, and the Bible as a whole. He wrote each word of it. as truly as He wrote the Decalogue on the Tables of stone. Higher criticism tells us — the "New Departure" tells us, that Moses was inspired, but the Decalogue not. But Exodus and Deuteronomy, seven times over, declare that God stretched down the tip of His finger from heaven and left the marks, the gravements, the cut characters, the scratches on the stones (Exod. xxiv:i2). "I will give thee Tables of stone, commandments, which I have written" (Exod. xxxi:i8). "And He gave unto Moses, upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God" (Exod. xxxii:i6). "The Tables were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables" (Deut. iv:i2, 13). "The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire, and He declared unto you His covenant, even ten commandments, and He wrote them 38 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. upon two tables of stone" (Deut. v:22). "These words the Lord spake and He zvrote them in two Tables of stone and delivered them unto me" (Deut. ix:io). "And the Lord delivered unto me two Tables of stone written zvith the finger of God!" Seven times, and to men to whom writing is instinct ; to beings who are most of all impressed, not by vague vanish- ing voices, but by words arrested, fixed, set down ; and who themselves cannot resist the impulse to commit their own words to some written deposit, even of stone, or of bark, if they have not the paper ; seven times, to men, to whom writing is instinct and who are inclined to rely for their highest conviction on what they have styled "documentary evidence," i. e., on books ; — God comes in and declares, "I have written !" The Scriptures, whether with the human instrument or without the human instrument, with Moses or without Moses, were written by God. When God had finished, Moses had nothing else to do but carry down God's autograph. That is our doctrine. The Scriptures, if ten words, then all the words — if the Law, then the Gospels — the writing, the writings, He Gra-phc — Hai Graphai — expressions re- peated more than fifty times in the New Testament alone — this, these were inspired. V. And so we reach the fifth and closing head — the Casket of the Gem. The Bible is its own self evidence, not only in its Immortality — in its sublime Authority — in its transcendent Doctrine — in its direct assertions ; but also in the very Languages in which it is enshrined. Let us go back to the Hebrew — to God's language — to the tongue in which He said, "Let there be light !" before there was a world. The oldest languages are philologically the most perfect, and nothing else, perhaps, betrays so deep, so pathetic a stamp of the Fall as does the downward progress of the human tongue. Back of our coarser and more block-like English, we transfer ourselves to the French, with its subtler refine- ments— with touches of its hair-like pencillings upon the shades of thought ; or with its buoyant swell and give to all emotion, as elasticities of wave to sinuosities of shore. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 39 And back of this again : in dream-like thrall to more melodious cadences of the Italian tones — "accents whose 5aw was beauty, and whose breath enrapturing music." And back of these — back of their mother-Latin — to the in- finite versatility and grandeur and depth and comprehen- siveness of the Greek. Greek ! in itself a universe prepared for teeming and for populating thought. Greek ! with its infinite and wondrous subtleties of shade in mood and tense, its play of graceful and innumerable particles, and cadences like chimes of air-flung and metallic bells. And, back, still back — and, the farther, the more complicated and abstruse — the more exacting in its constructions — the more precise in its articulations — the more attenuated in its case and tense endings, is our human speech — the more Divine a vehicle of wide enfranchised thought. The Sanscrit is not any longer like pulley-blocks roped to- gether, nor like corals threaded on a string. Smooth and pellucid in its flow, it is as liquid sunlight dropping in echoes of a rhythmic and remote cascade, as from the ledges of an upper and angelic heaven. Language, then, the higher we trace it, is not found to be a bungling and mechanical attempt at understanding. It is more and more the throb of holy heart to heart — the flash of heavenly thought rekindling thought, without the chasmed break, without the filmy veil ; and all our dying tongues, down to the latest, are but fainter echoes — frag- ments of that earlier and loftier speech, in which the angels spoke to man — Adam to God, and God to Adam. When we have reached the beginning, we have in possession the language of God; the words and the grammar which God gave in Eden — which man has corrupted, confounded, lost away in dialectic dislocations since the fall. The Hebrew, like a prism shattered into various lights at Babel, is the matrix of all other roots and forms. 1. Because in it, as in no other, names are Divinely ex- pressive. Originally, names are characters in photograph. They are, or they should be, like labels on phials, which describe the contents. Names at the first were manifesta- tions of men and of things. They are so in Hebrew. Adam means "Earthy," Seth "Substituted," Noah "The Con- 40 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. soler," Abraham "The Father of Multitudes," Jacob "Sup- planter," Moses "Delivered," "Drawn out." 2. The Hebrew is origmal, because in it, as in no other, derivatives are built upon their roots, so that one can look through the derivative straight to the root, or back, so to say, though the slides of the telescope to the first slide — the root notion ruling unswervingly everywhere. Take as an example, Adam — earthy, because made from the earth — Isha, "woman," because made from Ish, man. In other languages the continuity is often broken. In Greek, anthropos, "man," has no relation to ge, the earth. In Latin, mulicr, or femina, "woman," has no relation to homo. 3. The Hebrew form is antecedent to all similar forms in all other languages. Its root stands first. This is splendidly argued by Scaliger in opposition to the Maronites, who claimed a greater antiquity for the Syriac. What is the Syriac for "King," says Scaliger, — Melekah/'. What is the Hebrew? — "Melek." Which has the root, and which is the shorter? That settles it. 4. Because the language employed by Adam in naming the animals was Hebrew, and that language was not in- vented by him upon the occasion, but had been taught him by God. One thing: Because the names given to the animals imply a knowledge of their attributes and characteristics. Another thing: God had already been talking to Adam, and in the same language. Again : It seems that the animals were brought to Adam as object-lessons, to see what he could call them — i. e., God wished to see how accurately Adam would fit the name taught to the thing. 5. Because language is called in Scripture, not only "Throat" and "Lip," but especially "Tongue," and it is said that God teaches man this : "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned" (Isa.l:4). "The preparations of the heart," not only, but "the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." 6. Because the whole earth was once of one tongue and one speech, and that speech by common consent of all Jewish and Gentile Traditions, the Lingua Sancta, the Holy, or the Hebrew Tongue. So says Ephodeus ; so Jonathan the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 41 Paraphrast. With this agree the Kabbalists, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Book of Cosri, R. Ben Jarchi, R. Ben Ezra, R. Levi ben Gerson — as well as Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine.* 7. Because God himself spoke before Adam was created, and spoke in Hebrew, calling "Light," DV Day; "Dark- ness," nj£ Night; "Firmament," *™ Heaven; "Dry land," p6f Earth, etc. Hebrew was the first language, and therefore the most perfect language; for "that which is perfect," says Aristotle, "requires a perfect expression" ; and Adam, being made very good, must have had a language very, i. e., perfectly good ; besides, a language which God speaks, must be like God. Thus, stamped upon the gravements of its very casket — upon the very tongues in which it speaks, we read conspic- uous, self-evident, the truth, that while Philosophy, the science of man, moves forward, Theology, the science of God, moves bacward — "Philosophia quotidie pro-gvessu, Theologia nisi r^-gressu non crescit." Backward, backward, backward, the whole Volume moves us — not only nineteen centuries behind the present moment ; but back of time itself and every moment into the light of all eternities — to speak the proclamation of a Gospel as antique and as unchangeable as are the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God — for "Of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things — to whom be the glory, for- ever. Amen!" Brethren : the danger of our present day — the "down- grade," as it has been called, of doctrine, of conviction, of the moral sentiment — a decline more constantly patent, as it is more blantantly proclaimed, does it not find its first step in our lost hold upon the very inspiration of the Word of God? Does not a fresh conviction here, lie at the root of every remedy which we desire, as its sad lack lies at the root of every ruin we deplore? Brethren : a fresh conviction — only that — of the very Inspiration of the Word of God — spreading itself abroad ♦See Buxtorf, "De Antiquitate Ling. Heb." 42 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. in the minds of our earnest American people, would wake — from Maine to Arizona, and from Florida to Idaho — the wave of a revival such as this continent has never known. Key up ! then — let us key up our "Credo" in the absolute- ness of the word which God has spoken. Bind again ! Let us re-bind all cables to that Anchor, and the Ship of destiny, including all souls' freightage, will again obey her rudder, and be saved from wreck. The great question for every man is that of his personal answer to the Word, spoken out of the skies, of a personal God. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 43 THE INSPIRATION OF THE HEBREW LETTERS AND VOWEL-POINTS. St. Matt. v:i8. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be ful- filled." The question as to literal and chirographic inspiration will always move back inch by inch in discussion, until it has reached and finally confronted the crucial defense of the Reformers — that of the very Points. The New Testament hangs for authority upon the Old Testament, and the Old Testament hangs upon the Points. It is perfectly well understood by us all that the con- sonants are characters or letters in the Hebrew, and that the vowels are placed over these, within them, but espe- cially beneath them in the form of marks or points. These points determine the words, and the words de- termine the sentence. Whether a word be a noun or a verb; or, if a noun, what noun? if a verb, what verb? passive or active, past, present, or future? — all this, in a given particular case, may depend on the points. Take as an illustration, in the Hebrew the word 1VW to — T esteem. This, by change of the vowels, becomes ">1?E> a gate; -!]>£> a porter; ^ vile; "V& to shudder; 1?& the hair; "^ fear, horror. All seven words, verb, noun, or ad- jective, to be distinguished only by the points. Take as another illustration, in the English, the word "Broad," for instance. The consonants are B. R. D. Now for the vowels — Bard, Bird, Beard, Board, Aboard, Brad, Braid, Bred, past of to breed — Bread, an article of food — Broad, Abroad, Brood. Twelve words, at least with three consonants. The manuscript is theopneustic, not the man. The in- sipiration of the Vowel-points — part of that manuscript — is therefore seen to be integral, vital. Of course, if the pen-strokes are inspired upon the parchment, the words 44 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. are. Give the pen-strokes, and you give the words. The establishment of the Points will, therefore, always be the establishment of the Church doctrine of exact, direct, chirographical inspiration ; and not only this, but also the establishment of one straight, permanent, received, and changeless text ; and this Dr. Ginsburg, himself the foremost laborer against that text, as equally against the vowel- points, most readily admits. The constant, uniform tradition of the Jews, affirming that the points came down from Moses, and the giving of the Law, was a tradition unbroken down to the year 1538, twenty-one years after Luther had nailed up his Theses. The points were then denied by Elias Levita, a rationalistic Jew, who stood alone against the sentiment of his whole nation, at the time of writing his book.* "It is to the Massoreth Ha Massoreth of Levita," as Dr. Ginsburg ad- mits, "that we owe the present modern controversy con- cerning the antiquity and inspiration of the Points." "The rejection of the Points," as he admits, "by men of laxer tendency, following Levita, produced most lamentable effects, especially so far as the criticism of the Old Testa- ment is concerned"! — effects, indeed, we may add, from which we have not yet recovered, but which, in spite of all the resistance of a sound and a loyal conservatism, are still seen working themselves out in the popular, so-called, "Higher Criticism" of the day. "It was," continues Dr. Ginsburg, "the unwarrantable liberty taken with the text, first started by Capellus, following in the wake of Levita, and the resort to all sorts of emendations and conjectural readings, in oder to sustain the peculiar and the precon- ceived fancies of different individuals and schools, which converted the controversy about the Vowel-points into an Article of Faith in the Reformed Church of Switzerland, and led to the enacting of a law in 1678 that no person should be licensed to preach the Gospel in the churches, unless he publicly declared that he believes in the integrity of the Hebrew text, and in the Divinity of the very Vowel- points." The last Doctrinal Confession of the Reformed Church ♦Buxtorf, Tractatus de Punc, Origine. Caput II, p. 3. fMassoreth Ha Massoreth, p. 61. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 45 of Switzerland, the Formula Consensus of 1675, drawn up by Heidegger and Turrettin, and which fitly closes the period of the great Calvinistic confessions, says as follows: "In particular, do we accept the Hebrew Codex of the Old Testament, which comes to us from the hands of the Jewish Church, to which were formerly committed the 'Oracles of God' ; and we firmly maintain it, not only as to the consonants, but also as to the vowels, sive ipsa puncta, the very points ; the words as well as the things, as thcopneustos — God-breathed — part of our faith, not only, but our very life." The question is settled for us, however, not by traditions or confessions, but by the Book itself. The Bible testifies the inspiration of the Points. 1. It says, with reference to the Tables of the Law, that they were the work of God absolutely ; and that the writing was the writing of God — the whole of it ; and that it was graven of God — every scratch of it. See Exod. xxxii. 16. 2 Our Saviour tells us that part of these scratches were "jots," or yodhs, and "tittles," or little pointed marks, and that not one of these shall pass away. The words of Christ, "jot," "tittle" (see Matt. v:i8), are no repetition of some common and exaggerated proverb, and they are no tautology. They mean, in all Divine intention and emphasis, just what they say, and they refer to the specimen of the two Tables, not only, but to the whole scope of Scripture as well. "Seeing our Saviour," says Fulke — the great champion of Protestantism — "seeing our Saviour hath promised that never a prick (i. e., a vowel point) of the Law shall perish, we may understand His words of all the prophets, for we do not receive the vowels from some later Jews, but from the Prophets themselves." Such, also, is the comment of the distinguished Hebraist, Hugh Broughton, as well as that of the great Piscator, (who says: "It appears from this text (Matt. v:i8), that the Holy Bible, in the time Christ, had the points, and that these points were confirmed by our Saviour." 3. The Bible asserts the inspiration of the very vowel- points, because it says, "Words which the Holy Ghost 46 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. teacheth" — the words. "Words," notice, not "half-words" — not wind-swept skeletons, which wait to be filled in by human conjecture. Consonants are not words, and if men can make vowels, they can also make consonants, and so make their own words, and so make a Bible. Nor does the minuteness of the vowel-point impugn the argu- ment, since God, who can engrave an Aleph, can equally engrave a Kibbuts or a Sheva. Exod. xxxii:i6, says that He did so. 4. The inference is unavoidable from Deut. xxvii :8, where the command is given to write "very plainly" — literally to cut each mark in deep. This must include the vowel-marks, as well as consonants, for on them, most of all, the plainness must depend. There are innumerable passages where, without the vowel-points, no man alive can tell the meaning of the Holy Ghost, nor know the mind of God. Rome opposes, with all her most virulent force, the vowel-points, because, once rid of these, she makes the Church the arbiter — the umpire and interpreter. The Church puts in the points. This anti-scriptural and arrogant assumption of exclusive rights in the monopoly of truth — the very doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat — was never voiced more boldly than by that bulwark of the papacy. Morinus, who does not hesitate to put it that "the reason why God ordained the Scriptures to be written in this ambiguous manner (i. e., without the Points), is because it is His will that every man should be subject to the judgment of the Church, and not to interpret the Bible in his own way. For seeing that the reading of the Bible is so difficult, and so liable to various ambiguities, from the very nature of the thing, it is plain that it is not the will of God that every one should rashly and irreverently take upon himself to explain it ; nor to suffer the common people to expound it at their pleasure; but that in those things, as in other matters respecting religion, it is His will that the people should depend upon the priests." Counter to this entire principle of Rome, Protestantism stands for the points, and. the more, that she is driven to THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 47 substitute for an Infallible Church, an Infallible Something —a Bible. "The Bible," says Protestantism, "is independent of all men — of all tradition, of all councils, of all decretals and canons. It needs no Pope ; nor college of scarlet-f rocked cardinals ; no Ecumenical Assembly to endorse its claim." "The Church," says Protestantism, "is built on the Bible, and not the Bible on the Church." The Church is to be shaped to the Bible, not the Bible to the Church. The Church is to return to the Bible, not the Bible to the Church. The Church is not the keeper of the Bible, but the Bible keeps the Church. The only barrier against backsliding ; the only hope in reform ; the only power to heal, that is vital, is the Book of Books, and the conviction that its every utterance and every pen-stroke is Divine. 5. A fifth and final indirect but powerful testimony of the Scripture to the vowel-points, is in the marginal notes which the Hebrew brings with it — the so-called Keri Ve- Kcthib. The Keri in the margin nowhere changes the vozvels of the text. The margin everywhere testifies to the vowel-points as authentic. It is the consonants in every instance that are changed. The Vowel-points then, according to the Scripture as well as the universal Jewish tradition, are an integral part of the text — of the very handwriting of God. The Kab- balah (Sohar I; 15, b.) asserts that "the Vowel-points pro- ceeded from the same Holy Spirit who indited all the sacred Scriptures." Suppose one to take the opposite ground, that the consonants alone were inspired and the vowels, a human invention, were afterward introduced. Now see the diffi- culties : When? At what moment were they introduced? Such a change as the pointing over — from Genesis to Malachi — of an unpointed Bible must have produced among Christians, as well as Jews, little less than an earthquake. Press the argument further : The Points are in exist- ence. They are here. Not only do we have books written and printed without them, but we have books with them, the Great Temple Copy, of which these shorthand, ephemeral copies are briefs. Where did the points come from which 48 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. are to-day upon the MSS. considered as authority ? Those MSS. which regulate criticism and are the unswerving conservators of the true text? The points upon those MSS, whence did they come? Press the argument still further. It is said that the points were invented by the Masorites because we get them from the Masorites, but the question echoes and still echoes, "Whence did they get them?" Press the argument home to the wall. It is said that the points were invented by the Masorites. It is said so, because Levita first said so. But what did he know about it? Nothing. He stood, as Buxtorf shows, alone — a single man against the senti- ment and history of his whole nation. His speculation was built rashly up on a conjecture like a blind man's dream — upon a fancy, rootless as a mushroom growth. There were several schools of the Masorites. Which school invented the points? Why did not other schools — the jealousy of scholars is proverbial — observe, dissent, dispute them? How explain the miracle of a complete unanimity and un- exceptional subjection to the school of Tiberias, if school of Tiberias it was ? How account for it that childish, doting Rabbins of Tiberias, "men more mad than Pharisees, be- witching with traditions and bewitched, blind, crafty, raging," should have shown such nice Divine composure and exactness as appears in all the adaptations of the points? "Look at the men," says Dr. Lightfoot in his masterly response to Walton's Prolegomenon. "Read over the Jerusalem Talmud, and see there how R. Judah, R. Cha- ninah, R. Hoshaia, R. Chija Rabba and the rest of the grand Masorites behave themselves. How earnestly they labor at nothing ; how childishly they handle serious dis- putes, how much froth, venom, smoke — pure nothing in their disputations. Then if you can believe the pointing of the Bible came from such a school." become a Jew yourself, "believe also their Talmuds. The pointing of the Bible savors of the work of God the Holy Ghost and not of that of lost and blinded and besotted men." Allowing the question to be narrowed down to the Masor- ites, let us consider a little more closely who or what were these men who by the merest freak of conjecture are sup- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 49 posed to be the authors of so great a work as giving vow- els to the lifeless consonants that stood for Hebrew words. 1. Admitting that there was, at any time, at Tiberias, or anywhere else, a body of Jews having in hand the fixing of the Divine text in a permanent form — then confessedly those Jews would be men to whom the Word of God had never been committed as a trust, as it had been to their fathers before their rejection: men who had no interest in or title to it or right to deal with it. Castaways from the Covenant they were ; whose "house had been left to them desolate." Men blinded they were, without the Holy Ghost to guide them — with a veil upon their hearts — utterly in- capable of understanding the Scriptures, the letter of which they held in their hands, or of finding Christ in them. Was God likely to give such men the power to put soul into the dead carcase of the letter? Would He inspire such men to supplement and rectify an inadequate and therefore faulty text, left to them by "the finger of God?" Would He teach them to invent and add what prophets and apostles had been ignorant of from the foundation of the world? 2. These Masorites, whoever they were, were men so far from fit to interpret the mind of God in the Scriptures or even to approximate a knowledge of the truth, that they were desperately engaged in opposing and denying the claims of Christ in the Gospel to their own confusion and final destruction. Their business was the turning of the truth of God into a lie ; how then could they do aught to preserve it? 3. The Masoretic theory of the origin of the points is contradicted by the very points themselves. The gloss upon Isa. 53 which, in order to get rid of a suffering Messiah had been put upon it, by the Chaldee paraphrast, and in which the sufferings, instead of being endured by Christ, were represented as inflicted by Him on His enemies — this gloss, of centuries before, was well known and accepted by these Rabbins of Tiberias, why then, if they put in the points, did they not point the text to correspond with their interpretation? Surely they would have done this, had they had control of the pointing. They did not do it because the points were already there 2000 years before their day and 50 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. though the points were against them they did not dare to change them — nor could they change them had they dared. 4. These Tiberian rabbins, the Masorites, were men un- der the special curse of God — His vengeance on account of the shedding of the Blood of His own dear Son. To no such men did God commit the integrity of the "Lively Oracles." As well commit it to the hands of Satan him- self. 5. These Masorites were men of the densest ignorance as to anything outside their traditions — as appears from such stories as that in which they make Phyrrhus King of Epirus in Greece help Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem and other like nonsense. Of all the foolish fables ever invented, this is the most absurd and incredible, that obscure and ignorant men of Tiberias — men about whom we know nothing — men the creations of credulity itself — phantoms like the false Dream sent to Agamemnon, — in a time of grossest ignorance, and living among a people abandoned to error and themselves blinded under the curse of God, should — without any con- sultation with Babylonian or any Jewish schools — all at once find out and carry to perfection a work so great, so excel- lent, so incomparable, so transcendent as the fixing for all time of a Divine authoritative text which had hitherto been fluctuating and mutable — that they should do this, and that the whole world, Jewish and Christian, without a single de- murrer or dissenting voice, should receive it, implies a miracle so portentous, so impossible, so self-contradicting, that to believe it requires one to empty his brains out. Were I convinced that the pointing of my Hebrew Bible depend- ed upon such men as the Masorites, I would shut it up in despair of ever knowing its contents. "He who reads with- out the points," says Rabbi Isaac, "is like a man who rides a horse axaXiroi without a bridle, to be carried whither he knows not."* Without the vowel-points as Whitfield has sug- gested it is impossible to distinguish different words written with the same consonants. Take the word n?an, ps jg:I) which by a change in the vowels and *See along this line of argument, Owen on the Vindication of the Hebrew Text. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 51 daghcsh, may be read in 125 different ways. Take again the case of the conjugation of the verb, in which the Kal, Piel and Pual are, so far as the consonants are concerned, precisely alike and are to be distinguished only by the vowel- points. The Kal and the Piel are active; the Pual is pas- sive. The word fj^p without the points is either '"he killed." or "he was killed" with no way to determine which. In the future tenses it would be even worse ; for example in the word npD, where the Kal, the Niphal, the Piel, the Pual, the Hiphil and the Hophal without the vowels are the same. So that six out of the seven conjugations of the verb without the vowels are precisely alike. Thus the copiousness, variety and exquisite accuracy claimed for the shades of meaning in the Hebrew verb are gone and there remains only perplexity and confusion. Another argument for the antiquity and inspiration of the points may be drawn from the irregularities in form and grammar which occur, and which would never have been left in the text had Masorites or any other human experts had the pointing of the text. Take one example which must suffice for all. Had the vowels been put in by the Masorites, they would never, with their technical and finical regard for the small points of grammar, have left Daniel to address King Belshazzar in the feminine in- stead of the masculine form. Daniel probably addressed the effeminate king in that way — surrounded as he was by women and perhaps, like Sardanapalus, more or less dressed like one and posing like one in his dissolute feast — in order to suggest his shame as well as guilt while he pronounced his terrible and petrifying doom. Vowels are the life of a language. They are to the consonants what the soul is to the body. It is significant that a vowel begins and a vowel ends the Greek alphabet taking in all the letters between them. Nor is it less signifi- cant that Christ, the Eternal Word, exclaims : "I am the vowels : I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last — I speak everything." Vowels are the life of a language — the consonants are not. The consonants are simply stops upon the breath; but the breath — Ah, E, O, — Ye, Ho, Vah — is primal, the soul. As says the Kabbalah the oldest and most eminent 52 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Jewish authority, "Consonants are the body and the vowel- points the soul ; the consonants move with the motion and stand still with the resting of the vowel-points just as an army moves after its sovereign." "Vowels," says Dr. Gill, "are the life and soul of language. Letters without them are indeed dead letters ; the consonants stubborn immovable things ; they cannot even be pronounced without vowels which are, as Plato says, 'their necessary bond.' ': That therefore, the Hebrew, the first and most perfect of all, God's own peculiar language, should be without them, is in- conceivable. No written language can be read without the vowels. I once went down into the Hebrew quarter of New York City to convince myself of this. It is easy enough to read an unpointed text when one knows the pointed text thoroughly, as readers in the synagogues who are instructed can do. But to seize the exact word and sense without the vowels is impossible, and to teach little children and beginners in a language, without them, is impossible. Even our simple English could not be taught to little children by the con- sonants alone. Three consonants can stand for at least a dozen words; four can stand for more than fifty. Think of the strain upon the memory. Think of the nice exercise of judgment in taking in the scope of the connection. Think of the fine instinct necessary to discern the inten- tion of the writer and so to choose the vowels that exactly make the words that reproduce his thought ; and then im- agine that the complicated Hebrew could be preserved and taught and understood ; and God's thought, — no merely human thought — perfectly transmitted, by jangling con- sonants without connecting links — Crcdat Judacus Apclla! To all these arguments may again be added the care of the Jews in copying. The original manuscript written by Moses himself, must, in the course of time, have perished — although that "Book of the Law" (see 2 Kings xxii:8), seems yet to have existed in King Josiah's day. Copies therefore, would be called for at a very early date. Ac- cordingly we find rules of the severest stringency laid down for the copyist. The Temple Manuscript ruled Supreme. When a manuscript showed traces of age and of use, it was burned with the extremest care and solemnity. Be- fore this it was copied by official scribes. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 53 These scribes were to write with a specially prepared black ink upon a new parchment from the hide of a clean animal. Every skin must contain a certain number of columns of prescribed length and breadth. The number of lines must be the same in each column ; the number of words the same in each line. No word must be written till the copyist has first inspected it in the example before him and pronounced it aloud. Before writing the name of God he must wash his pen. All redundancy or defect of letters must be scrupulously avoided. Prose must not be written as verse, nor verse as prose ; and when the copy has been com- pleted it remains for examination and approval or rejection thirty days. From all this who can fail to be persuaded of the accurate transmission of the very "jots" and "tittles" of the law ? "But the synagogue copies have been and are unpointed. Why?" One reason, perhaps, was and is the labor saved in copy- ing. The same consideration leads us in writing to em- ploy abbreviations. A reason more serious was that of the Cabalists and other allegorizers, who wished to make the Word of God confirm their comments and traditions ; that they might give their own interpretation to the text. "When the letters are not pointed," says R. Menachem, "they have many faces (or interpretations), but when they are pointed they have only one sense according to the punctuation." The unpointed text allowed the rabbins opportunity for free thought, which opportunity they embraced, "making the Word of God of none effect through their traditions." In sympathy with this same spirit human nature loves to monopolize whatever good may be and the more valuable the good, the more exclusive and determined the monopoly. Nor are hierarchies by any means an exception. The rabbins then and learned men would favor an unpointed text which gave them scope for the assumption of authority in deciding what was the text and what must be its meaning. This secured great honor, influence and power for the clergy, while the common people were deprived of a plain text from which they could draw their own conclusions, and which they could make their independent guide. These 54 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. are the men who "sat in Moses' seat," against whom our Lord so severely inveighs when He says : "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the king- dom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in your- selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." In perfect accord with this spirit, we have Rome's vehe- ment defence of the Masoretic pointing of the Hebrew text. As soon as the notion of the late invention of the points was broached by Elias Levita, the Church of Rome em- braced and endorsed it as an argument for the uncertainty and unreliability of the Old Testament text ; the necessary consequence of which uncertainty must be the setting up of the Church in place of the Scripture, as the infallible authority, and Arbiter of truth. "Scripture," says Rome, "has no authority but what it receives from the Church." Joannes Morinus, in his preface to an edition of the Septua- gint printed at Paris, A. D. 1628, does not hesitate to state this proposition in the plainest words : "The doctrine of salvation is by Divine Institution made," he says, "to de- pend upon the authority of the Church. A remarkable evi- dence whereof, amongst others, is the perpetual uncertainty and ambiguity of the Hebrew text by reason of the absence of the points." Dr. John Owen, defending the inspiration of the points and speaking of Morinus, says, "He makes the Hebrew tongue to be a very nose of wax to be turned by men which way they please and so to be given of God on purpose that men might subject their consciences to an infallible church. In nothing do they, the Papists, so pride themselves as in the conceit of the novelty of the Hebrew punctuation, whereby they hope with Abimelech's servants, utterly to stop the wells and fountains from which we should draw our soul's refreshment." If the Hebrew points are not an original part of the text, and if they were not ab origine, before ever a Masorite was born, then the text is indeed uncertain nor can any man be instructed, reformed, confirmed or established by an uncertainty. If the points are not authentic they are of no value and we, as honest men, can have nothing to do with them. If the points were put in by the Masorites on a tradition THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 55 of sounds afloat in the air for thousands of years, it was done by a miracle. It was indeed, considering who these Masorites were, Satan inspired to make scripture! Moreover: it is as easy to believe that the consonants came floating down in the air by tradition and that their characters were invented as to believe this of the points. "But," one says, "the consonants existed, they are here!" So did the points exist, they are equally here. "But Jerome who finished the Vulgate translation of the scriptures in the year 420 says nothing about the points !" No, and neither do we. in translating, say anything about them. We take them for granted and so did he. Else why — for example, does he say "You must not read ")3T, you must be -sure to read tar ? What nonsense ! If there were no points to distinguish the words it would be the same as saying in English, "You must not read B L K "black," vou must read B L K "block," or "balk" or "bleak" or "bloke," or what not. Jerome had the points as his entire translation proves. The Hebrew text, as we have it, came down unchanged from Moses. This is clear, not only from the fact that the men who deny the antiquity of the points differ among themselves as to when and by whom the points were put in — whether in the year A. D. 500 or 800; whether by later or by earlier Masorites, or by Ezra or by some one else they know not whom. The only thing they agree in is the denial of the points as Divine. To us they are Divine or nothing. The most simple, perfect, beautiful, exquisitely self consistent system of punctuation ever known to man was not the invention of any darkened brain of doting Masorite ; nor was it the invention of the brighter brain of either Ezra or Moses. God shines through the "jots" and "tittles" of His law as gloriously as through the stately, square and upright characters which — like Heaven's windows, open out eternal lights and grandly represent the most majestic language in the world. And yet again an argument — why do the points exist at all? Because they are needed. Nothing not needed sur- vives. But, if needed now they have been needed from the beginning — each "jot" and each "tittle," why not? No one ever doubted the authenticity of the points until Levita, a rationalistic Jew, surprised his nation with his 56 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Massoreth Ha Massoreth. Ludovicus Cappellus, a Protest- ant professor in Saumur — a man unsound in his theology, whose sympathies were with the Church of Rome, of which, his son who aided him was a bigoted member — followed up Levita's line of argument. The whole scheme — exposed and confuted by Buxtorf in his Tiberias, and condemned by the orthodoxy of the Reformed Church — leaves the points to-day as indelible upon the manuscript as when they were put there by the finger of God. If any scritpure is inspired they are. Nor is it to any purpose whatsoever that men contend that the points are too numerous and too minute to claim the thought and finger of Almighty God. He, to whom the wonders of the microscope are as infinite as those of astron- omy : He who does not disdain to count the hairs of our head; to fix a thousand fascets in the eye of an insect, or to guide the circulation of a million animalcules in a drop of water, can make and count and fix vowel-points as easily as He can make volcanoes, or fix the number of the constel- lated and unconstellated stars. If He has magnified His Word above all His name, i. e., above all His other man- ifestations, then He has magnified it in the minute as well as in the magnificent — in the "jots" and "tittles" as well as in the hewing of the tables of the law. In bringing forward this argument our opponents therefore, "like Goliath, carry a sword which cuts off their own heads." The entire contention, as to the points comes to this : Is the Bible the Infallible Rule and Ultimate Appeal in religion, or is Tradition the Rule: or the Church of Rome the Rule: or fluctuating Opinion — what men call "consciousness" — the Rule? The contention, then, is not one of quibbles, it is one of life and death. The men who hold the literal inspira- tion of everything in scripture are safe. The men who seek to undermine or weaken that foundation will find that "the beginning of strife" with Almighty God "is as when one letteth out water." The Bible itself is lost before that strife has been ended. The whole question of the vowel-points resolves to this. Does God knozv anything about them? Is He ignorant of the shape or the value of a Kametz or a Seghol? If not, if He knows that they are in the text, He equally knows how they came there. And as scripture everywhere, in every THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 57 word is fixed by these vowels the vowels themselves must be authentic. However, placed where they are, they were placed there by God. That is all that we mean and that is just what we mean and what we stand for when we con- tend unflinchingly and ad cxtremum for the vowel-points as inspired. THE HEBREW SQUARE LETTER. Men, to get rid of the vowel-points have gone further and denied the forms of the consonants as well. They have claimed that the square character — the most majestic, regal and superb of texts, is but an innovation upon an earlier ugly, uncouth and barbaric text styled the Samaritan. To this, it may be replied : 1. It is not likely that the Law of God given to Shemites would first be written in the language of the accursed race of Canaan. 2. There is no hint of a change of characters, from Samaritan to square, at or before the time of the captivity. If such a change there was, it must have been known to both Nehemiah and Ezra who give us no hint of it. 3. Justin Martyr asserts that Moses, under a divine inspir- ation, wrote his history in Hebrew letters ; he does not say "Samaritan letters," although he himself was a Samaritan. He also says that out of the ancient books, written in Hebrew letters, the Septuagint or 70 elders made their translation. 4. The Hebrew letters of the alphabet found in consecu- tion as the headings of the verse of Ps. CXIX and elsewhere correspond, as Dr. Gill has pointed out, with the things which they signify ; as N signifies an ox, and looks like the head and horns of one ; 3 signifies a house and looks like it ; "J a door of which it describes the lintel and post. The Samaritan characters look like nothing and sig- nify nothing. The Hebrew letters are the originals which give names to all others. 5. The Hebrew has five double forms of letters, i. e., — one form for the middle, and another form of the same letter for the end of the word. These are found throughout the whole Bible while the Samaritan has no final letters and nothing to correspond with them. 58 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 6. The words "Holiness to the Lord" on the mitre of the high-priest were never written in Samaritan nor did any Jew ever question whether they were written in the square letter or Hebrew. y. The Hebrew character is the grandest, most majestic, most expressive, most symmetrical and elegantly formed character in the world. God wrote it. It speaks its Divine origin in its frank and upright form as contrasted with all other circular and serpentine and crooked alphabetic writ- ings. The character itself is the sublime and solemn auto- graph of God. Straight-forward, perpendicular, reliable, consistent, unmistakable, invariable, without the shadow of turning, it never has changed and it never will. Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven. To all this, the unbroken and unanimous belief of the whole Hebrew nation, an objection has been brought from certain alleged Samaritan coins dug up in Judea. It is said of these coins that they were more ancient than the captivi- ty and that the inscriptions upon them in the Samaritan characters are a proof that the Samaritan character was the character in use among the Jews before the captivity. It is easy, in reply, to say: i. There is no evidence whatsoever that these coins ex- isted before the times of the Maccabees. 2. They had Greek on one side and so-called Samaritan on the other. The alleged Samaritan looks as much like Hebrew as it does like anything else. Moreover there is not one of these coins which by experts like Ottius, Reland, Spanheim and others has not been found to be spurious. Men capable of writing spurious Gospels were capable of inventing spurious coins. 3. There were plenty of coins in silver and brass with inscriptions in the square character ; coins which dated back to Solomon and back of him to David. The Jews in the Talmud, as quoted by Dr. Gill, affirm this. R. Azariah says that he saw in Mantua a silver coin having on the one side "King Solomon," in the holy tongue and square letter, and on the other side the form of the temple. Equal testimonies have been given by Hottinger, Wagenfeil, Sel- den and others. In Isa. ix :6 a final D is found in the middle of a word. J THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 59 If Isaiah was written in Samaritan, how account for that final letter which the Samaritan lacked? Again : The letters of the word Jehovah written verti- cally in the square letter make the human figure and even in the dawn of Genesis, fore-shadow incarnation. Did God mean to fore-shadow it? Then He wrote in the Hebrew square letter, for the Samaritan is incapable of any such thing. That God meant something by it the Jews have always believed, for they early discovered the resemblance and called the Tetragrammaton a mystery. It is a mystery and stamps the Hebrew characters divine. Oh for light upon the light of the letter that in God's light we may see light ! Go THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. SHEOL : THE PRINCIPLE AND TENDENCY OF THE REVI- SION EXAMINED.* " 'The wicked shall return to Sheol.' And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments." — Ps. 9:17, Luke 16:23. I have set before myself a simple, straightforward task — to translate into the language of the common people and in lines of clear, logical light the principles involved in the new version of the Bible and just in what direction it tends. This thing is needed. Nothing at the present moment is more needed nor so needed, for I am convinced that the principle at the root of the revision movement has not been fairly understood, not even by many of the revisers them- selves, who, charmed by the siren-like voices addressed to their scholarly feeling, have yielded themselves to give way, in unconscious unanimous movement, along with the wave on which the ship of inspiration floats with easy and ac- *This discourse was preached June 7, 1885, soon after the Revised Bible first appeared. It is reprinted now with later comments, simply because the principles involved remain the same and will apply to the "American" or any other similar Revision made upon the unsound basis of a change, not of the English only, but of the original Greek itself, by substituting Tischendorf's X backed by the doubtful and imperfect Vatican, for the purer text of earlier and better MSS. in the possession of the Protestant and Greek Churches : and to which the Greek Church, by the imprimatur of her patriarchs unswervingly adheres. The old textus receptus, in spite of Westcott and Hart and their disciples, is the purest Greek text in the world. This age will invent nothing better. And it is a significant fact that the British and Foreign Bible Society is about to replace one of its editions of the Greek Testa- ment, now run out in Athens, by a reprint of the text of the Greek Church bearing the imprimatur of the Patriarch Constantine E. The preface of that Greek Testament says ; "This edition has aimed at, as nearly as possible, an exact repro- duction of the oldest ecclesiastical text and particularly of the text of the Church of Constantinople." This Greek is that on which the authorized Version of 161 1 was based, the translators being in touch with Constantinople from whence the Codex A in the British Museum came, presented as it afterward was to Charles I by Cyril Lucas, Patriarch of Constantinople. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 61 celerating motion, toward rebound and crash upon the rocks. Men have been talking about certain texts — they have been criticizing changes on the surface, but not one man in 10,000, certainly not one in 1,000, of the masses I mean, sees sharply to the ganglionic centre of that poison which works out so many plague-spots to the open day. To kill the principle is to kill the whole thing; and this at last is the issue, the only point worthy of labor. The ques- tions and the quibbles about isolated texts, headings of chapters and divisions, are comparatively incidental. What lies under them and determines them at last is the grand question as to the whole theory and fabric of the new higher critical system as applied to the Greek of the New Testa- ment and reflected in its influence from that upon the Old — a system which time, as I must believe, is sure to demol- ish from its Ttpoorov ip'evSot its false premise, as the first brick standing in a row, and falling on its neighbor, pros- trates all the rest. That a few changes might be made in both Testaments, for the better, no man pretends to deny ; but that all the learned twaddle about "intrinsic and transcriptional prob- ability," "conflation," "neutral texts," "the unique position of B," the Vatican manuscript, and behind it the "primitive archetype," i. e., text to be conjectured, not now in existence ; and finally the flat and bold and bad assertion that "we are obliged to come to the individual mind at last," — that all this so-called science shutting right up to one "group" of manuscripts, at the head of which are two — both of them, X and B, as the drift of the proof goes to show, of a com- mon, perhaps questionable, Egyptian, origin — one of them discovered in 1859, and first published in October, 1862, little more than twenty years ago — the other the Vatican Codex, supposed to be earlier, first — and behind that for- sooth, to supply its defects, conjecture, cloudland, where divine words float on the air, — that all this theory is false and moonshine and, when applied to God's word, worse than that ; I firmly believe. But you — suppose you believe so — why should you in- terest yourself? Sauve qui pent — why not save yourself and leave things to go as they may? 62 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Because I am a minister of Christ, just as responsible to God as any man or minister on earth ; because my busi- ness is to preach and to defend this book, and, shake this book beneath me, I am gone. "If the foundations be de- stroyed what can the righteous do?" But why not speak before? Why now? Because I have been waiting four years for other, abler men to speak ; because my knowledge and my convictions have been but slowly maturing, and because there was not special reason before, such as the appearance of the whole Bible revised now suggests. But you have already done enough in what you have said to unburden your mind; why not let the subject there stay? Reply — We never have done enough until we have struck the last needed blow. The story of Joash and the arrows is here in point : • "And Elisha said unto the king, 'Smite upon the ground.' And he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth and said, thou shouldest have smitten five or six times ; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it ; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." We have never done enough until we dealt, to what we find to be error, the coup de grace. A man must make it his choice either to have God upon his side or men. I am confident that if I did not say what I am about to say I should be silent from the fear of man, and I prefer to fall into the hands of God. I know that the Revision up to this moment controls and has controlled the Reviews of this country, and has had it in its hands to make and lead opinion, as it would, the last ten years. And yet I am persuaded that truth always carries such a terrible weight in its favor that none of its defenders need hesitate to speak. A sword in the hands of a child is might- ier than a straw in the hands of a giant, and no amount of earnestness can be condemned when pleading, on straight lines, the cause of God. "To employ soft words and honeyed phrases," says Dr. Thornwell, "in discussing ques- tions of everlasting importance ; to deal with errors that strike at the foundations of all human hope as if they were harmless and venial mistakes ; to bless where God disap- proves, and to make apologies where He calls us to stand THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 63 up like men and assert, though it may be the aptest method of securing popular applause in a sophistical age, is cruelty to man and treachery to Heaven. Those who on such sub- jects attach more importance to the rules of courtesy than they do to the measures of truth do not defend the citadel, but betray it into the hands of its enemies. Charity for the persons of men, whatever their opinions, is a Christian virtue, but I have yet to learn that the opinions themselves fall under its scope. On the contrary, I apprehend that love for Christ, and for the souls for whom He died, will be the exact measure of our zeal in exposing the dangers by which men's souls are ensnared." Sentiments like these, my brethren, add their impetus to my conviction. Rather than keep silent from the fear of any consequences that may come to me, I must prefer to fall into the hands of God. And indeed there is pressure upon me to speak. We are told in the Book, which is in the balance to-day, that "the priest's lips should keep knowledge." That does not mean "keep it in," but preserve it and translate it into plain and honest idiom, and show, in their relation, facts and principles which are at any time astir. The fact and principle astir just now is fundamental. It is not only the question of doctrines taught by the book, but of the book. And not only of the book, but of the unity of an English speaking Protestantism. The French Protestants have three different versions — those of Osterwald, Martin, Segond. In their churches and homes sometimes one is read, sometimes another. A while ago I was worshipping in a French Church in Paris. The minister read from one version, I looked over another. At the bottom of the page I find pencilled, "Not two words in five alike !" Imagine the influence of such a variation on our united front against the infidel and Rome. Study its influence upon French Protestantism in the past and now. Consider the force of the objection, "You have different Bibles and neither, or none is exact." Consider the effect upon our children to have nothing settled ; to feel that Holy Scripture is a nose of wax to be twisted hither and thither. Consider the effect of all this upon what is, alas ! too infrequent just now, the committing to heart of the very words of the Book as the binding dictate of God. 64 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "Our authorized version is the one religious link which at present binds together ninety millions of English-speaking men scattered over the earth's surface." Imagine the effect of lightly loosening upon these, the power and pressure of that mighty, holy bond ! Better a few archaisms, a few quaint, perhaps inadequate expressions, than such an un- foreseen but logical result as that. When it comes to the Bible, our heirloom, the charter of our personal hopes for eternity, we all are interested, and may well be interested, and the more that the great work in this and all divine directions has never been exclusively accomplished by men, however gifted and however honored, and most justly honored, who sit in theological chairs; but also by the help of plain pastors — of men at rough work — of men in personal contact and dealing with souls as well as the book — of men like Athanasius, Augustine and Wick- liffe and Huss and Calvin and Boston and Edwards. So that we all have an interest and are all responsible for an influence, and have all a very ample and appropriate apology for giving thought to this question. Hitherto I have spoken of the New Testament revision and that is indeed my main point. I have shown — I. That it is impracticable, unelastic, uncongenial, and from its many needless, disconcerting changes — more than 6,000 in all — a vexatious English. II. That it is a defective, unskillful translation; a transla- tion which mutilates the book by its unauthorized omis- sions, and which unsettles souls by its multiplied notes of discredit, a translation, too, which lacks those marks of spiritual apprehension and of feeling which are the suprem- est quality — so patent and so glowing in what we have now. The principle of translation adopted by the Revisionists, viz. : to render the same Greek word by precisely the same English word, in each case, was false and mistaken — a principle which cannot possibly be carried out and has ar- rayed against it all philosophy as well. In contrast to this narrow, unadaptable, pedantic notion the old Translators, recognizing the shades of meanings in words and the place, just there, where tact and knowledge and spiritual discern- ment and taste must come in, laid down another and far THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 65 more scholarly principle — "We have been especially care- ful," they say, "and have even made a conscience, not to vary from the sense of that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing in both places, but there be some words that be not of the same sense every- where." Principle how broad, my Brethren, how judicious ! For we must remember that to translate is not to construe. Take the first line of Virgil's Eneid — Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris. A school boy tones it off and quite correctly, "Arms, man and I sing — of Troy who first from shores." That is exact, if exact means identical, but it is not a translation. Virgil is poetry. There is no poetry in the school boy's literal words. Virgil gives you a picture — the school boy gives you no picture. Virgil opens with a grand idea — the school boy gives you no idea, but only words. To translate then is not simply to know a language and construe it literally. A translator must have the Geist, as the Germans say, of a language ; the soul; and more, must be one with the spirit that breathes the great original words. This men forget now-a-days. The reformers made every- thing of it. A natural man, they maintained, cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God, nor can a mere scholar. Spirituality is the supremest requisite. Whatever else a man is, or is not, he must be spiritual to translate the things of the Spirit. Just this explains the secret of the German Bible. Luther's translation, considering the time, the books, the helps he had, is almost supernatural. I am prepared to believe that in some true sense it was. "His choice of words in render- ing the Hebrew," says Dr. Gottleib, a learned Jewish scholar, "shows a kind of inspiration." "Luther guessed at mean- ings which have only in later years been found the true ones." Heine says of Luther. "He translated the Bible from a language which had ceased to exist into one which had not yet arrived. Our dear Master's thoughts had not only wings but hands; his faults have been more useful to us than the virtues of a better man. How Luther got the language into which he translated the Bible is to this hour incomprehensible." Mendelssohn says of Luther, "Wo er schlecht iibersetzt hat, hat er dochvortrefflich verdeutscht," 66 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Where, in translating, he has blundered he has made in- imitable German. But Luther's blunders are next to infinitessimal and so are those of our ancient translators. Their English is mahog- any, takes a polish, and bears rubbing, in comparison with which the English of the present day, for such a purpose, is both bass and pine-wood. III. That the revised New Testament is based upon a new, uncalled for, and unsound Greek text — that mainly of Drs. Westcott and Hort, which was printed simultan- eously with the revision and never before had seen light, and which is the most unreliable text perhaps ever printed — one English critic says, "the foulest and most vicious in existence."* Drs. Westcott and Hort's New Testament comes to us bound in two volumes. The second volume an apology and introduction. I intend to follow that second volume straight through and make its consecutive points. I cannot give you 324 pages, but I can give you the analysis — the heads — and you can go and get the book and verify them for yous- selves.f The points are these. I. Out of all available manuscripts, say 1,100, N (the Siniatic) and B (the Vatican) stand far above the rest. II. B the Vatican stands, for authority, far above K — is older than N- III. K and B, or rather B N, stand for some earlier ♦Since then we have another newer text, that of Nestle and Weidner based again on Tischendorf and incorporating the defects of Westcott and Hort; bracketing as it does Mark 16:9-20, and actually discarding John 8:1-12. The margins of my own copy of this Testament of Nestle & Weidner are blackened with the pen- cilled words "omission," "great omission" — "omission of 7 words" — "omission of 9 words" — "omision of 4 words" — "omission of 3 words" — "uncalled for transposition" — "change of statement by change of verbal form," &c, &c. What may be said of Westcott & Hort applies therefore to Nestle & Weidner — the principle and spirit are the same. fPublished by Harper & Bros., 1882, and marked** THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 67 manuscript not now in existence, perhaps an actual auto- graph. IV. B is the nearest, earliest link with that actual auto- graph. V. Since B is full of omissions — leaving out as it does I. and II. Timothy — Titus — Philemon — Hebrews from chap- ter IX. on, and the whole of Revelation, besides multitudes of minor omissions — 2,877 words in all — we are forced back, to supply such omissions, finally, to "Conjectural emenda- tion," "Critical instinct" — the individual mind at last. Now I will prove my own words and make each of these points. I. " K and B stand far above all other manuscripts." In- trod. page 210. "They were written, in parts, by the hand of the same scribe." Introd. page 213. "They were written in the same generation and probably in the same place." Page 214. "They are no less excellent when taken all alone without the other manuscripts than when supported by them." Page 219. "What makes them so superior is their internal evidence — that of which only a critic can judge." Page 219. "They must be accepted until this internal evidence be found untrue." Page 225. "They never can be safely rejected." Page 225. II. As N and B stand far above all others, so B stands far above N — is older than X Page 210, §285. Trains of manuscripts where B leads off without k are equally good with those which have X, *. e., B plus is equally good with K, B plus. Pages 227, 238. This is not so with trains in which N leads off, i. e., N plus is not equal to X B plus. Page 229. The peculiar readings of B, found nowhere else, do commend themselves on their own merits. Pages 230-238 §317. III. B and N start from an earlier archetype — some lost autograph manuscript not in existence. Now let me quot* verbally page 247, 248: "The ancestries of both manu- 68 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. scripts having started from a common source not much later than the autographs, justifies a strong initial presumption that the text of their archetype is preserved in one or other of them." Again, page 287: "Whatever may be the ambiguity of the evidence in particular passages the general course of future criticism must be shaped by the happy circumstance that the fourth century has bequeathed to us two manuscripts, of which even the less incorrupt must have been of exception- al purity — which manuscripts rise into greater pre-eminence the better the early history of the text becomes known." IV. B is earlier and much superior to X, and indeed is separated from the original autograph of the Apostles by very few links — pages 248, 249, — "by very few links, in- deed." This is proved: 1st. "By the fact that B is an Uncial" — is written in capi- tal letters. 2d. "It is proved by tradition." 3d. "It is proved by the omissions in B" — criticism is the art of getting down to the bone. Whatever manuscript adds anything B does not. "The manuscript which omits most is the purest, because less clogged with extraneous matter." Page 235. "It is on the whole safer for the present to allow for a proneness on the part of the scribe of B to drop petty words not required by the sense." Page 236. That is the whole argument on which is founded the new, higher critical system. N and B are above all the others. B is above X. B with its omissions is nearest to the first and simon-pure autograph. Where omissions are to be supplied in B the door is open for "conjectural emendation" — "personal discernment here would seem to be the surest ground." Personal instincts will be trustworthy in the degree of education and of criti- cal experience. Quotations from pages 65, 71. NOW, AGAINST THIS WHOLE THEORY, SIM- PLE AS IT IS AND PLAUSIBLE, WHICH PLACES "B" FIRST, FOREMOST AND INFALLIBLE ARBI- TER, I HAVE TO REPLY. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 69 I will oppose B the Vatican MS. first, foremost, alto- gether, simply because it is the Vatican MS., because I have to receive it from Rome, because I will have no Bible from Rome, no help from Rome and no complicity with Rome ; because I believe Rome to be an apostate. A worshipper of Bread for God ; a remover of the sovereign mediatorship of Christ ; a destroyer of the true gospel, she teaches a system which, if any man believes or follows as she teaches it, he will infallibly be lost — he must be. Notice what is omitted in the Vatican MS. — Timothy and Titus, Imputation see verse 18. Hebrczvs, The doctrine of the Blood-Atonement once for all. The Apocalypse, Christ coming to catch up the true Church and to deal with the Mother of Harlots. On any ground I will not pin my faith on Rome. I do not know what she has got. No man knows how many omissions she herself has made in what she has got. I will not take my Bible — not the bulk of it — from her apostate, foul, deceitful, cruel hands. "Timeo Danaos et dona fcrentes" — I fear the Latins bearing presents in their hands. And with good reason for: 1st. As to B's being an Uncial, so are four others — so are the two English MSS., A and D. As for A (British Museum) on Drs. Westcott and Hort's own testimony, it "stands in broad contrast to both X and B." And "it stands quite alone in some manifestly right readings." It is probably the oldest as it is the most reliable having been in the hands of the Greek Church from time immemorial and is the base of the New Testa- ment authorized by the Greek Church — the purest text of all. As for D (Cambridge), the same self-betrayers admit that "the text of D presents a truer image of the form in which the Gospels and the Acts were most widely read in the third and probably a great part of the second century than any other extant Greek MS." Introd, p. 149.* Here, then, are the two great English Uncials, both of which are undoubtely older, one of which A is in contrast *The five great N Uncials are A, B, C, D and . C, in Paris, is a palimpsest. yo THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. to n and B, and is alone in some manifestly right read- ings ; the other of which, D, takes us back to the best form of the text in the second century, i. c, two centuries before the earliest pretensions made for the Vatican, f and that they admit. But more than this, the Cursives, i. e., MSS. written in small running characters are original sources, as well as the Uncials. No MSS. are autographs. These cursive copies represent originals. Why not? No reason why not. Everybody admits that a cursive may be even, in some cases, a better authority than any uncial. Why not? The foundation of the received text of the Apocalypse was a cursive marked I. This is strenuously insisted upon in the Preface to the Greek Testament issued under the 2$PAri2, the Seal of Constantine E Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1904. That Preface says : "This edition purposes as its end the reproduction of the most ancient text according to the Ecclesiastical tradition and especially as handed down by the Church of Constantinople. Having such an end in view, the book is prepared, not upon the basis of any printed editions whatsoever, nor upon the basis of critical editions which have made use of the Great Codices written in capi- tal letters, but upon the basis of those copies which are commonly neglected and, to make use of a Scriptural expres- sion, "disallowed of the builders ;" — upon the basis of the Byzantine copies many of which are written in small letters and letters calling for minute inspection." Translation from the Preface to the Testament of the Greek Church the text of which agrees in every point with that of our received and authorized version. Why, when men are so valorously tProfessor Hug labored to prove that the Vatican was written in the early part of the 4th century, but Bishop Marsh puts it two centuries later. Home's Introduction, Part I, Chap III. Probably both A and D are older than B and unspeakably purer. D was found by Beza in the Monastery of St. Irenaeus at Lyons and repre- sents a Western — possibly an Albigensian (Protestant) Genealogy: Greek on the left hand page and Latin on the right, the Latin trans- lation is older than that of Jerome. Dr. Scrivener says: "It may well have been brought into Gaul by Irenaeus and his Asiatic com- panions A. D. 170." It contains without a break Mark 16:9-15 and John 8-12 passages discounted by the Revision. — See Scrivener's Codex Bez as Cantabrigiensis Intr. ix., p. xlv. See also Home, PL I., Ch. III., Sec. II., §4. THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. 71 contending for the Supreme authority of the Vatican MS, does it not occur to some "critic" that it would be well to go back to the Greek Church for MSS as well as to Rome? Just so a Version or ancient translation may be a source. The versions, it is admitted by critics, have been "too much neglected." And once more the Fathers. Suppose St. Augustine quotes Mark ix:44, 46, 48, just as we have them: "Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." That shows that in his day at least the three-fold statement was regarded as the Word of God. B then cannot be Emperor. A and D oppose it. The cursives oppose it. The Greek Church opposes it. The ver- sions oppose it. The fathers oppose it. 1,100 documents op- pose it. But tradition! B is said to be older. Well, it may be older, because less trustworthy, less used, and so not worn out. Or it may not be older. It is first mentioned, anywhere, in 1475, sixty years after Huss and Savonarola were burned, ten years before Luther was born, not fifty before the Ref- ormation. That is a pretty young document to claim to be lord over 1,100 documents, many of which may have been then, for all that we know, a thousand years old. "Oh, but it is written in great capitals, and it has divi- sions into paragraphs such as documents had in Eusebius* time." Yes, and what is there to prevent men from imitating a manuscript of Eusebius' time, and writing it large and for a purpose? Besides, who knows anything about the Vatican manu- script? Its first collation, in 1669, by Bartolocci, now in Paris, was confessed to be imperfect, and that was published 100 years after Calvin and Luther. The next was by another Italian, Mico, in 1725. A tran- script made for Bentley, an Englishman, who wished to edit a Greek Testament. Imagine that. A Roman Catholic writes off a true and correct New Testament for a Protestant to publish. The next information we get is in 1838. The history of this edition is "strange and obscure." It did not receive 72 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. the approval of Rome, and nobody knows whether it was a true copy or not. In 1845 Dr. Tregelles, armed with a letter from Cardinal Wiseman went to Rome with the deseign of seeing that manuscript. After much trouble he did see it. "Two pre- lates were detailed to watch him, and they would not let him open the volume without previously searching his pockets and taking away from him ink and paper. Any prolonged study of a certain passage was the signal for snatching the book hurriedly away. He made some notes upon his cuffs and finger nails."* in 1867 Teschendorf, by permission of Cardinal Anto- nelli, undertook to study the Vatican Codex. He had nearly finished three Gospels when his efforts to transcribe them was discovered by a Prussian Jesuit spy. The book was immediately taken away. It was restored again, months later, by the intervention of Vercellone for a few hours. In all Teschendorf had the manuscript before him forty-two hours and only three hours at any one time, and all but a few of those hours were spent on the Gospels ; and yet, he says, "I succeeded in preparing the whole New Testament for a new and reliable edition, so as to obtain every desired result." Every desired result in forty-two hours — all but two or three of them spent on the Gospels alone. Every desired result in three hours hurried glancing through 146 pages of an old and stained and mutilated manuscript written on very thin vellum, in faded ink, with its letters throughout large portions touched and retouched, bearing marks of a very peculiar treatment of the Epistles of St. Paul, and confessed to have received some correc- tions from the first and the filling up of certain lacunae (blank spaces) from the beginning. That is the tatter of rags which is held up before us, between us and the sun, through the lacunae of which critics, forsooth, are to conjecture a spectral original read- ing. That is the theory and that is the apex and end of the theory — "conjectural emendation" consciousness as a test of what God has spoken — "critical instinct" "the ring ♦"Story of the Manuscripts." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 73 of genuineness" to borrow the phrases of Drs. Westcott and Hort — "What I like to read and confess." But I am not done. One more point. The Vatican must be the purest because of omissions! We have cut things down to the bone. To criticize is to cut. Whatever manu- script adds anything, the Vatican does not. Retrenchment, not contribution, is her forte. The manuscript which omits most, which has least of God's word, is the best because the least clogged with extraneous matter. See Westcott and Hort Introd. page 235. Let me quote : "The nearer the doc- ument stands to the autograph the more numerous must be the omissions laid to its charge." To all this we maintain not only denial, but assert just the opposite thing. 1. Omissions are what may be expected from Rome — Rome has had every opportunity to make the omissions — to tear off, for instance Hebrew IX to XIII — and all the omissions are straight in her line. 2. The principle laid down is nonsense. Take Israel in the captivity. The Ark was gone — Aaron's rod was gone — the Pot of Manna was gone — the Tabernacle curtains were gone. These things had been left in the path of bad prog- ress— first the Curtains, then the pot of Manna, then Aaron's rod, then the Ark — relics of their apostasy all the way down. History is against Drs. Westcott and Hort. The further back you go, if you go rightly, the more you get of any single document or ordinance given and settled of God. But I am not done. Grant the principle, "the more numerous the omissions the purer, until you get back to the Vatican." By that time you have cut out four and a half whole books. But you have three or four more conjectural manuscripts back of the Vatican — three or four links. Cut out three or four books at each link, and what will you have left when you get back to Peter and Paul. Poor Paul ! Poor old Calvinist ! All the omissions but one are out of unfortunate Paul. But I am not done. Grant the principle and you grant conjecture a source of God's word, "The Critical Conscious- ness"— Cloudland — God's word afloat on the air. 74 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Against all this we oppose, and firmly and steadily, the principle of the old translators. "External, prima-facie evi- dence is after all the best guide." Call in all your manu- scripts, all your data — uncials, cursives, versions, fathers — and that reading carries, which brings the highest evidence, from numbers, from weight, from congruity with the rest of the Scriptures, and from the open and manifest mind of the Spirit of God. Again, we press it, that the principle, Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ad omnibus, applied to theology, must be ap- plied to the Bible as well. Call in all your data, all wit- nesses from every side, and then the "best supported read- ing" rules. Not N and B, and not B, the tattered Roman, but the best supported reading rules. The two English manuscripts will here be likely to come to the front again and the Vatican go where it was — to the rear. IV. Now I have laid a good and solid and impregnable foundation. Ever since talking with a friend — an English clergyman — rector of St. Peter's in the East at Oxford, and a personal friend of one of the foremost opponents of the Revision, I have been confirmed in what had before been a growing conviction — that the Revision movement, dating from the finding of Teschendorf's K, unconsciously to most, but consciously to the Unitarian — to the Messrs. Vance Smith, Robertson Smith,* etc. — liberal members of the New Testament Company, was running steadily in one direction through three points : ist. To weaken and destroy the binding force of Inspira- tion in the very Words. 2d. To weaken and destroy the five Points of Grace founded on "Free Will a Slave." 3d. To weaken and destroy the old-fashioned notion of Hell as a place and a state of immediate, everlasting and utterly indescribable torment into which impenitent men go at once the moment they die. *Prof. W. Robertson Smith, cashiered by the Free Church of Scotland was, however, a member of the Old Testament Revision Company. Dr. Geo. Vance Smith, another member, was a Unitarian. It is a significant fact that two such men should have been asked to help give us a Bible. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 75 Now to prove these three points: 1st. The principle laid down by Drs. Westcott and Hort and reproduced from them since in the Presbyterian Re- view, tends straight and only to weaken and to destroy the binding force of inspiration in the very words. Eight articles appeared in the Presbyterian Reviezv from April, 1881, to April, 1885. They shook the country, and especially the Presbyterian Church. I do not now speak of the ivorst of those articles — of what was written in the name and spirit of so-called ''advanced thought." I speak of what was written in faint protest by Princeton — of what, under doubtful, shifty and apologetic language, gave old Orthodoxy, as to Inspiration, clean azvay. I say this — I said it in this pulpit two years ago — I said it at the Synod's room and was applauded for it — that when Princeton begins by refusing to call Inspiration an "influence," and by restricting it to "superintendence ;" when Princeton goes on to deny that the Inspiration in God's Word is the first truth we embrace, and makes it the last truth ; when Princeton asserts that "the Inspiration of the Scriptures is not in the first instance, a principle fundamental to the truth of the Christian religion, nor should we ever allow it to be believed that the truth of Christianity depends upon any doctrine of Inspiration whatever" ; when Princeton admits that it is a "misappre- hension" to suppose that Inspiration is, in its essence, "a process of verbal dictation," or control which God exercised over the very words, then we say that this revamping of the fundamental fallacies of Drs. Westcott and Hort gives Orthodoxy, as to Inspiration clean away.* And when Princeton again, by another Professor, bristles up to vindicate the "rights of Reason ;" when she asserts that in our criticism "we must treat the Bible just like any other writings," i. e., "that the immediate testimony of Scripture to its own Inspiration is not independent of criti- cism," which means, if it means anything, that that testi- mony can be criticised, subjected to the "critical instinct" of Drs. Westcott and Hort ; when she says that "the witness of the Spirit cannot be a common measure between minds," *Presbyterian Review, April, 1881, p. 226, 227, 232. 76 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. and that "the doctrine of Inspiration stands or falls with the results of critical investigation," then we say that in thus making "Reason" the ultimate criterion and arbiter of a Divine inspiration, Princeton, following the wake of Drs. Westcott and Hort, gives Orthodoxy, as to Inspiration, clean away.f For, to admit that fallen, erring man can criticise a Super- natural testimony is — what is it? To put "Reason" at the bottom of faith instead of God's Word at the bottom of faith. Is? — what is it? — to make man a critic of Scripture instead of Scripture a critic of man; the sinner a judge of the law, not the object of law, which condemns him. And what is this but to give Orthodoxy, in point of Inspiration, away, and follow the line of the rationalistic wave, the New Departure, which, prophesied by Van Oosterzee twenty years ago, has swept through Scotland, floating to his death its Robertson Smith, and now has us on its tide. For we hold, as fundamental, as to Inspiration the self- evidencing light that shines through ipsissima verba the very words — their native irradiation, na.6aypa.cpri SeortvEvdroS— it is the Scripture itself — the writing, not writer — that St. Paul says is God-breathed. We take the ground that on the original parchment every word, line, point and jot and tittle was put there by God. Every sacred writing, every word as it went down on the primeval autograph was God-breathed. You breathe your breath on a glass ; it congeals. So God breathed originally, Divinely, out of Himself and through Moses, through St. Paul, as through a bending and elastic tube upon the sacred PaSe- And every scrap or relic of that original writing found anywhere in the world (and God in spite of men will take care of it all) will shine wherever you find it by native irradiation, by light convincing, overwhelming and complete, in glory all Divine. We do not say every "conjectural emendation" will so shine — in the transmission of God's word is no room for "conjectural emendation" — but every honest writing will so shine. We take the ground, the Sun needs not a critic. When he shines, he shines the Sun — and so each word of God. ■^Presbyterian Review, April, 1883, P- 343, 344, 345, 348. 351. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 77 We take the open ground that a single stray leaf of God's Word found by the wayside by a pure savage — let it be the eighth chapter of John for instance — that that single stray leaf will so speak to that savage, if he can read it, that if he never heard or saw one syllable of the Bible before, that single leaf will shine all over to him, cry out "God !" and condemn him." That is our doctrine, and that, the New Departure, led in by Drs. Westcott and Hort, and their principle in the Re- vision, weakens not only, but kills and destroys. 2. The principle of the Revision, based on the Vatican and critical instinct, and running through the New Testament weakens and tends to destroy the five points of grace which are founded on "free-will a slave." The Doctrine of Grace which Luther taught against Rome is not that God makes men able to stand, and yet it depends on themselves after that, to fall or hold out, but the Doctrine is this — that that is grace alone which inde- pendently of works or merits on our part determines and changes the will, and "not only makes it able to stand, but guards against the possibility of future failure." The doctrine founds upon the will of God. "Of His own will begat he us" — "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." In other words it founds upon free-will a slave. "Grace is the denial of the sovereignty and strength of man. In his natural condition man is completely nothing in regard to spiritual life, and the power that calls him from that condition is as independent of his concurrence as that which originally created him out of nothing and brought him into the world."* This was the doctrine and it laid the foundation of the Spirit's work deep, deep, and deep in the prostration and the bondage of the human will. "Nothing in man," says Luther, "precedes grace, except his impotence and his rebellion." Such a system as that founds down below all else — all faith — all will or want of will — on Jesus Christ as God. If He is God He can do anything, meet anything — create *Dr. Thornwell in his articles upon the Invalidity of Romish Baptism. 78 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. — renew the will — awake to righteousness and raise the dead. The Revision weakens and removes the Deity of Christ in many places — I will mention five: John III: 13 — "The Son of Man which is in Heaven" — the words "which is in Heaven," living this moment as the Jehovah, are in the margin discredited and by Drs. West- cott and Hort are left out.f Luke XXIII -.42 — The dying thief's address. The Revised Version bluntly reads, "And, he said, 'Jesus remember me ;' " instead of "And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me," — ». e., it leaves out Kvpis, Adonai. Jehovah — leaves out his Godhood. Rom. IX :5 — "Of whom is Christ — who is over all God blessed forever." The footnote drops out the assertion and makes it "And of whom is Christ." A full stop. Then — "He, who is God over all" — whoever He may be — "is blessed forever." I Tim. 3-16 — "Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh." The Revision leaves out ®£o? God, and renders it "Great is the mystery of godliness, He who was manifest in the flesh," — i. e., the manifested One was only one phase — the highest — of godliness, the precise ren- dering for which all the Unitarians have been contending the last 1,800 years. (1) In the first place, o? "He who" cannot be right be- cause os the pronoun, is masculine and pvdrn'piov to which it refers, is neuter. (2.) Codex "A" of the British Museum makes it, accord- ing to all testimony of 300 years, Qeoi Dr. Scrivener, the foremost English critic, says it is ©£05. (3.) Codex "C" makes it OC. with a cross mark inside the O and a line over which denotes a contraction. (4.) "F" and "G," make it ©eos— OC. with a line over. (5.) All the cursives of St. Paul's Epistles — 254 MSS., with the exception of two have Oeoi. These copies were produced in every part of Ancient Christendom and their testimony may be regarded as final. fThe American Revision retains this text, but discredits it in a foot-note. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 79 (6.) Thirty out of thirty-two of the Lectionaries make QeoS. (7.) More than twenty of the Greek fathers testify to Geo?. To sum up : One MS. — Five versions — two late fathers read o"that which" — Eight read 5. Six MSS — Only one Version, not one Greek father, read 6? Seven read oi. The footnote to the American Revision shows the same Unitarian tendency. It reads : "Of whom as concerning the flesh is Christ, he who is above all. God be blessed forever." 289 MSS. — Three Versions and more than twenty Greek fathers read with the present Version @eoS Three Hun- dred and Twelve read 0£o?.* This sermon was preached June 7th, 1885. Soon after, I went to Europe where I spent nearly three weeks in studying this text I Tim. iii:i6 on the great uncials "C" and "A." Through the kindness of Mr. Albert Le Faivre, Minister Plenipotentiary from France to the United States, I had the Codex "C" for one week under my hands to study the membrane with lenses and under full sunshine. The parchment was also held up by an attendant in front of the great window so that the light could fall through the palimpsest page. I have compared the Theos of line 14 on folio 119, the one in dispute, with every other Theos on the page and, out of the five, find it the plainest one there. All five are written with two letters— OY, OY, OC, OY, Ofl Two of the five only have the line, the mark of con- traction, above. One of the two, the plainest, is the one they deny. Three of the five only have the hair mark in the Theta (©) — one of these three is the one they deny. To put it more plainly — the question is, Is it OC "who," or is it &C with a line over the two letters and a mark in the O, God? It is beyond question the latter. My eyes are as good as any man's. Again : I have studied Theos as it appears on Codex "A" (British Museum) with its mark in the Theta and its line ♦For the above facts upon 1 Tim. iii:i6, I am indebted to masterly Treatise on the subject by the Dean of Chichester. a ... extra mart - s w - him- - - - W - - - name c - - - ■ :he nam* i ■ ■force of a.r ■Ml r fcewsarc THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 81 adorable and undivided Trinity is evidently and directly referred to, and spelling the word with a small letter, the testimony of the whole Old Testament to the Divinity of God the Holy Ghost is, as Mr. Cardale has shown, greatly weakened. So too the spelling of words referring to Christ as "redeemer" (Job xix:25); "lord*' (Psalm cx:i), with a small letter, derogates from his Godhood. And weakening the Godhead of Christ the Revision weakens that which makes His Godhead needful to us and available — the doctrine of the Bondage of the Will. If we can deliver ourselves we do not need God in our flesh to deliver us. Free will is not then in every sense, as Luther held — a slave. Luke II: 14 betrays such a tendency. We have in the Authorized Version, "Peace on earth, good will toward men." The Revision changes this not only, but gives in the margin — "Greek, Peace on earth to men of good pleasure" —or, as the Roman vulgate has it, "to good-willing men" — "to men who have a good will."% For this, are only five manuscripts headed by the notorious Vatican. Against it are all other authorities. "Peace to good-willing men!" What the text asserts is that "God has a good will toward men." WThat the Revision asserts is that "men have a good will toward God" which is pure Arminianism. What man on earth has by nature a good will? Against it stand all the other known authorities — fifty-three to five. Rom. VIII :6 and 7 betrays again such a tendency. "For to be carnally minded is death — because the carnal mind is enmity against God." Here the doctrine is that of total, thorough, universal depravity — carnally minded means a mind through and through carnal. But the Revision rend- ers it "For the mind of the flesh is death — because the mind of the flesh is enmity" — i. e., letting the mind run in a fleshly direction leads to death, to enmity which apprecia- bly lightens the thought and makes another thing out of it. In this connection I cite some passages from the Old Testament which, to me, show the same drift. Take Job XV:i6 — "How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh inquity like water." In the Revision — "How much less (clean than the heavens) one |"To men of good will," Douay, Roman Catholic, Testament. 82 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. that is abominable and corrupt — a man that drinketh iniquity like water." Here a standard proof text for the race-depravity drops out. It is only one, a man, any man who docs such and such things. Take again : Jer. xvii :o, — "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" In the Revision — "The heart is desperately sick" — makes man the object of a weak compassion where the old translators made him guilty, an object of wrath.* So too, Ps. 110:3 — "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Subject the Hebrew to the closest scrutiny, and you cannot read with the Revision — "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power." That is just what they do not do, offer themselves. The will of God makes them willing. Thy people shall be "will- ingnesses," N'daboth. — The plural noun is used to give a sense distributive and vivid. They shall have a new will — every man of them B'yom Heleka, in the day of thy "strength," of thy might, thy sovereign concentrated power. The Revision not only weakens the Godhead of Christ, and it not only weakens the doctrine of the bottomless depravity and helplessness of fallen man and the enslaved condition of his will, but it obscures the way of salvation by a simple instant act of faith on Christ. John iii:i5. This glorious Gospel in the Gospel does not escape the sacrilegious hand. The Greek is as plain as A. B. C., "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." In the Revision the words "Should not perish" are left out and the words "may have" are substituted for the positive "have," — as if eternal life, after the act of faith, were in any way conditional or doubtful. It weakens the thought of an assured salva- tion upon the simple act of closing with Christ and trust- ing in Him. Rom. v:i. The Revision reads it, "Being justified by faith let us have peace." The old text, which is the text authorized by the Greek Church as well, declares, exo/uev *The Am. Rev. puts it "exceedingly corrupt," which is nothing like as strong as "desperately wicked." Gesenius translates &2ii "malignant." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 83 that "we do have it." It is impossible for a man to be- lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and not be at peace with God. To these instances might be added scores of others showing how ruthlessly the Revised Bible tampers with the text — It leaves out two whole verses Mark ix:44, 46. It leaves out the doxology of the Lord's Prayer. Matt. vi:i3- It omits or by a footnote discredits nearly 200 words in the last three chapters of St. Luke, among them our Saviour's prayer for His murderers and the story of the angel strengthening Him in Gethsemane ; as also His bloody sweat. It discredits twelve whole verses, the conclusion of St. Mark's Gospel (St. Mark xvi 19-20 ) ; and also other twelve whole verses — the story of the women taken in adultery — John viiin-12.* But I cannot go on with this point, time, not paucity of examples, forbids. In general only let me add, as a loyal son of the reformed theology and of the Reformers, that where any text is in dispute, the Calvinistic sense of it, being opposite to man's carnality, is probably the true one. There is not much danger that we shall, any of us, make ourselves too little — God too great — in the affair of sal- vation. 3. The third point that I make is the influence of Drs. Westcott and Hort's principle on the orthodox doctrine of Hell. It is well known that "Modern Thought" has busied it- self much with an assumed distinction between the words "Eternal" and "Everlasting." Nothing can be more sad than to find that the word Everlasting in the Revision has been in deference to this sceptical trifling, removed every- where it occurs as a translation of the word diaovios. And is then Hell not everlasting? Does Eternal mean less? Something shorter? Were our fathers, the old Divines. Knox and Boston and Baxter and Edwards, all wrong in making the everlastingness of Hell the very fear- ful part of it? The offset in the infinity of its duration to the infiniteness of the Majesty against whom strikes our sin? The fact is, the word diaiyios is applied to Heaven as *The American Revision incorporates these last but in a footnote throws discredit on the latter. Codex D, a fac-simile of which lies under my hand, contains them both without a break. 84 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. well as to Hell. It is the word which the Holy Ghost equally uses to emphasize the endless, unending durations of joy. And is Heaven then not everlasting? What then is ever- lasting? How do eternity, God even, shrink themselves so to the shadows and measures of time. I tell you, men and brethren, the thoughtlessness, worldliness, apathy of this age needs help from no such impressions. Eternity in all its awful measures is too dim to even the most earnest and awake among us now. The word Hell occurs twenty-two times in our New Testament. In the Revision it is left out ten times, and in everv other instance has a note or change which lightens up the idea. In the Old Testament the word Hell occurs thirty-one times. In the Revision, Sheol replaces it eighteen times. In eight places more, it is weakened by the notes "Grave," "Sheol." Only five times, and all those in Isaiah and Ezekiel, where it may be easily said "the word is figura- tive"— only five times out of thirty-one is Hell allowed to stand. In our present Bible the word Hell occurs fifty-three times. In the Revision only five times without note to relieve the idea. In Mark ix 144, 46, 48 our Saviour says three times over, "Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." The revised New Testament leaves out two whole verses — 44 and 46 — i. e., leaves out our Saviour's words — put there as we firmly believe, for very and for awful emphasis — thrice. The place which Christ in Luke xvi 123, describes is a place where the rich man "lift up his eyes being in tor- ments." That the word Hades substituted by the Revisers gives to the Anglo-Saxon a truer and more vivid notion of "torments" than Hell does, what common sense will affirm? As for the Old Testament, I will contend it, and there are men too in the Holy Church who will help me to con- tend it — that "Burn unto the lowest hell" — "sorrows of hell" — "pains of hell" — "deeper than hell," mean something more than is brought home to Anglo-Saxon ears by untrans- lated "Sheol," and something more, and more unutterable than language can depict — than thought can comprehend. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 85 I will contend, that "Sheol" in every one of the thirty-one instances of the Old Testament where, in the authorized version it is now translated "Hell," means, in fact or in figure, all that Anglo-Saxon ever meant by Hell; and that men who change that word and blot away that thought, have God to deal with and no judgment of fallible and feeble man. Hell to dis- appear from the pages of the Old Testament? Why it is the Old Testament whose "Tophet" and whose "everlasting burnings" (Isa 33:14) whose "undying worm and quench- less fire" (Isa lxvi:24) afford the very background and intensest picture of the frightfulness, eternity and in- stantaneousness after death of Hell Fire. It is the New Testament that preaches "the acceptable year of the Lord," but it is the Old Testament which adds to this, "the Day of Vengeance of our God." Hell to disappear from the Old Testament ! You never can sustain the doctrine from the New without the undergirding of the Old. Blotted from one Testament, the ground, the reason and the motive of salvation disappear from both. What then is the grand summing up of this IV. head of the discourse (made p. 16) as to the tendency of the Re- vision ? 1. A general weakening all along the line toward Rome. This must be, if Rome is to furnish the basal document which is to determine our Bible. No wonder then that it has been labored with such untiring earnestness — worthier, far worthier of a better cause — to make out as in the last Presbyterian Review, pp. 334-341, that "the church of Rome is not so corrupt that she has forefeited her right to be called a church." That she must therefore be accepted as a member of the great holy Christian communion, and that her baptism must be regarded as valid. No wonder I say that men have gone up valiantly to Church Courts to overturn if possible, the declaration of the Old School As- sembly of 1845 by a vote of 173 to 8, that Rome is apostate and her baptism as a baptism into an apostate system is utterly invalid.* ♦Assembly's Digest (O. S.) pp. 77, 78, "She neither administers Christian Baptism, nor celebrates the Supper of our Lord. 86 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 2. A second Tendency of the Revision is to loosen the Revelation of God from the letter, and to cast it floating out upon the winds. How can God inspire thoughts, ideas, but by words. Did you ever have a thought in your mind, an idea that was not in words? Never. If Inspiration is not verbal, in the very words it is nowhere. 3. The tendency is to remove from men that fear of penalty, which, say what we please, is the kingbolt of the Divine Government over the world. Take away the doc- trine of Hell-Fire and the world would became one great Sodom. This, this it is above all else that holds the clamp on wicked unbelieving men. A fear of suffering the ven- geance of Eternal Fire. The doctrine is "Turn or Burn !" short but unchangeable. If there is no Hell-fire to be saved from, there is no Salvation. 4. The tendency of the Revision will be to rebound. Perhaps the thing has gone far enough and men are be- ginning to tire of tinkering their Bibles, their Creeds, their sound and tried and wholesome and Scriptural standards. Perhaps the craze for "Criticism" has had its day and the better age of faith — subjection to the mind and will of God is coming in. "Faith," said Luther, "is a sixth sense — ■ above all other senses." The highest exercise of reason is to believe the highest kind of testimony. "There will be no new God, nor new devil," says Spurgeon, "nor shall we ever have a new saviour, nor a new atonement. Why then should we be attracted by the error and nonsense which everywhere plead for a hearing because they are new? To suppose that Theology can be new is to imagine that the Lord Himself is of yesterday. A doctrine lately become true must of necessity be false. Falsehood has no beard, but truth is hoary with an age immeasurable. The old Gospel is the only Gospel. Pity is our only feeling toward those young preachers who cry: 'See my new Theology!' in just the same spirit as little Mary savs : 'See my pretty new frock !' " The time has not come for a New Translation of the Holy Scriptures. The Church is not spiritual enough. The Principle has not been settled, and the Data are not all in. Now let me say in conclusion — nothing but the fear of God — the hand of God upon me could ever drive me to preach the doctrine of endless Hell-fire. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 87 I do not love the notion of Hell any more than any other man does. Sensitive as most men to pain, to sorrow and tears, tender of life as any man, and increasingly so of the life of even a worm, I could well resign myself to say "Hades" — to preach, "My friend if you do not repent, if you die without Christ, if you reject this Gospel at my lips, you will return — you will go away into Sheol ! You will wander in the shadows of a heathen Hades !" But I cannot preach so and, by God's help I never will.* The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the nations that forget God. *The words "Sheol," (Hebrew) "Hades," (Greek) mean simply "the invisible world," in which are two places and two places only — Heaven and Hell. Christ on the Cross, according to the Re- formers, sunk under the sorrows of Hell. There, on Him, the Infinite, was poured the penalty infinite. There "the pains of Hell gat hold upon Him." There, "on the tree of the cross, He humbled Himself unto the deepest reproach and pains of Hell, both in body and soul, when He cried out with a loud voice My God, my God! why hast Thou forsaken me!" The soul of His sufferings were His soul-sufferings. "On the cross," says Calvin, "He endured all hellish agonies in His soul." There, "all God's waves and His billows went over Him." There and not in any Heathen Hades, Romish Purgatory or post-mortem Probation. When Christ said "It is Finished!" it was finished. When He said "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," that very day He and the saved thief were in Paradise which St. Paul says (2 Cor. xii :2-4) is the "Third Heaven." 88 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. RELATIVE VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Hosea viii :i2. "I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a- strange thing." The point at issue in the whole controversy with "modern criticism" is, whether the Bible can be placed upon the same plane with other, merely human, literature and treated ac- cordingly, or whether, as a Divine Revelation, it addresses us with a command and sanction? The power of the Book is shaken from the moment we deny its a priori binding claim on our belief and obedience. The Book is a royal document, or series of documents issued by the King of kings, and binding upon every subject. The Book, then, is to be received with reverence by one who falls upon his bended knees beneath the only shaft of light which, from unknown eternity, brings to the soul the certainties of God — of His dealings in grace with men, and of a judg- ment. The Old Testament is — in some sense — more awful than the New — as it begins with a creation out of nothing — as it thunders from Sinai, and as it prefigures and predicts the momentous facts of Calvary and the Apocalypse. God the Invisible appears in Genesis and discloses Him- self— from the first — in the mystery of three Persons. God's holiness and the certainty that sin shall be punished, is revealed in the awful catastrophes of the Fall, of the Deluge and of Sodom. His mercy is conspicuous in Sacrifice, from Abel's altar down through hectatombs of Blood, to the last sublime tragedy of Golgotha. The wonder and the glory of His purpose shine in the raptures of Enoch and Elijah — in the flaming wheels of Ezekiel, and in those visions of Daniel which picture the confirming of the kingdom in the hands of the triumphant Messiah by the ineffable Ancient of Days. But it has been represented that the Bible has twisted it- self up like a worm from the dust by an Evolution in which the human element is most conspicuous. In place of the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 89 doctrine "I have written to him the great things of My law" — "all Scripture, the writing, is given by inspiration of God," — in place of the dictum of Christ, "It is written," there has been conceived a notion which lifts inspiration from the writings to the writers, and then begins to prate, with owl-like wisdom, of degrees of inspiration — shad- ing these degrees away until — , to use one of the favorite illustrations of this rationalistic school, the feathers at the tips of the wings of the eagle are dead things as compared with the heart of the bird. Certain statements — like the nails on the ends of the fingers, may be excluded as worth- less. Now for the Old Testament, — If we lose it, we lose our Bibles — if we shake it, we shake our Bibles, for nothing can be more true than that axiom of St. Augustine — In Vetcre Testamento, Novum latet; in Novo Testamento, Vetus patet, — "In the Old Testament the New lies hidden, in the New the Old is made known." Grant that a human element is in the Old Testament, who can determine how far that element extends? No one. Grant that something has been found out about the Bible, within the last fifty years, that makes it less reliable — less inerrant, in plain English, less free from mistakes than it was, — in some ways, a book that is under suspicion, and the result is that the mind is unsettled. Belief rests upon a less secure basis than it did. Grant that some geographical or chronological statements are inaccurate — go a little further, and assume that the men whose names are attached to the books did not write them — that Moses is a fictitious char- acter invented after the captivity — that Deuteronomy was written by reformed Jews who got their ethics in Babylon — that there were no "ethics," i. e. morality in the days of the Judges — that the stories of Jephthah and of Jael are atro- cious— that the XI of Hebrews might as well be sponged out if one is going back to the Old Testament for exam- ples of any living faith implying spiritual and consistent con- duct— that — passing over Isaiah who is a composite char- acter made up of several different men, and Ezekiel and Daniel who are of inferior consideration, the great and perhaps the only authentic prophets are Hosea, Amos and Jeremiah who lived at the close of the Theocracy when 90 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Israel, as a nation, was practically done with and "the times of the Gentiles" were about to come in. Grant that Ecclesiastes was not written by Solomon but put in the mouth of Solomon as Browning puts reflections into the mouth of Fra Filippo Lippi ; and that Job, as a char- acter is perhaps historically as true as Hamlet upon whom Shakespeare's tragedy was founded, — Grant this, and then grant that the story of the Fall itself, on which St. Paul grounds all his theology, is but a myth — or as Westcott and Bishop Temple — not to speak of pronounced heresiarchs — put it, an allegory covering a long succession of evolutions which had done their work, in forming man such as he is, before the narrative begins — Grant these things and what becomes of the awful impress of responsibility laid on the conscience by the Sacred Volume? What becomes of the tremendous parallel between the First and Second Adam on which is built the covenant of Grace? As a counterpoise to a tendency so dangerous and to errors so radical, let us inquire. I. What is meant by the Old Testament? II. What is meant by its being inspired? III. What is its value relative to the New? I. What is the Old Testament? It is the word of God — the very word of very God — "I have written to him the great things of my law." i. The Bible claims to be the word of God. No literature in the world can for one instant be compared with it. It is evidently on a plane above the natural. Nor can anything be alleged against a supernatural com- munication from God. Neither science, nor history, nor criti- cism, nor any fact we know, nor any postulate we can con- jecture, can bear evidence against the Divine origin of the Hebrew Scriptures. There is no reason, and there can be none, why God, who has made man in His own image and capable of communion with Himself should not speak to man and, having taught him letters, write to man, in other words, to put His communication in permanent form. The man who denies the supernatural is one who contradicts his own THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 91 limitations. Either he is the universe, or there is some- thing outside of him. Either he is his own god or there is a God above him. The inspiration of the Old Testament, including that of the whole Bible, is a matter, first of all, of pure Divine testimony, which leaves us nothing but to receive it. God says, "I am speaking." That ends it. The instant order of the Book to every reader is "Believe or die !" 2. The Book brings with it its authentication. Who would think of standing up under the broad blaze of the noonday sun to deny the existence of the sun? His shining is his authentication. In like manner the Old Testament, by the supernatural truths which it reveals, by the supernatural facts which it records, by its supernatural appeal to heart and conscience, by the witness of the Holy Ghost, and by its influence in up- lifting lands and ages, radiates itself through all horizons as Divine. 3. The Old Testament contains the oldest records of the world — records dating back of all history, of all relics, of all memory or reach of man — records which, in their earliest pages, cannot be confirmed, because there are no data beside them — which run back of the dimmest tradition and which only in later periods begin to receive confirma- tion, as thev universally do, from fragments of Assyrian cylinders and ruins of Egyptian monuments. God, back of all profane history, tells us of the origin of nations, of the Flood, of the antediluvian era, of creation, things otherwise and utterly beyond our ken. 4. The canon or volume of the Old Testament, as we have it, containing thirty-nine books, is identically the text that Christ had, and that He endorses, quoting from its every part. In the first place, there are no other books in the world, written in Hebrew, which date from before Christ's day. Again : The volume from which Christ quotes was in ex- istence and identically the same as now, when the Septuagint translation into the Greek was made, 280 years before Christ. Again : The Hebrew Bible which we have, containing the thirty-nine Old Testament books, has come down to us pre- served with a care beyond that ever given to another book. The Jews cherished the highest awe and veneration for 92 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. their sacred writings which they regarded as the "Oracles of God." They maintained that God had more care of the letters and syllables of the Law than of the stars of heaven, and that upon each tittle of it mountains of doctrine hung. For this reason every individual letter was numbered by them and account kept of how often it occurred. In the transcription of an authorized synagogue MS., rules were enforced of the minutest character. The copyist must write with a particular ink, on a particular parchment. He must write in so many columns, of such a size, and con- taining just so many lines and words. No word to be written without previously looking at the original. The copy, when completed, must be examined and compared within thirty days; if four errors were found on one parchment, the examination went no farther — the whole was rejected. When worn out, the rolls were officially and solemnly burned lest the Scripture might fall into profane hands or into frag- ments. The Old Testament, precisely as we have it, was en- dorsed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When he appeared on the earth, 1,500 years after Moses, the first of the prophets, and 400 years after Malachi, the last of them, He bore open testimony to the Sacred Canon as held by the Jews of His time. Nor did he — among all the evils which he charged upon His countrymen — ever intimate that they had, in any degree, corrupted the canon, either by addition, diminution or alteration of any kind. By referring to the "Scriptures," which He declared "can- not be broken," the Lord Jesus Christ has given His full attestation to all and every one of the Books of the Old Testament as the unadulterated Word of God. In his con- versation with the two going to Emmaus, when, begin- ing at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, He gave express endorsement to the whole canon, and to the canon as a whole. Again when — just before His ascension, He said to his apostles, adopting the three-fold division of the Old Testament known to them — "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concern- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 93 ing Me," He endorsed the Books, one and all. Our Blessed Lord puts "what is written" equal to His own declaration. He saw the Old Testament inspired from one end to the other, divine from one end to the other. Ah ! how He valued the sacred text. Our modern critics, with arrogance which rises to dar- ing impiety, deny to Christ the insight which they claim for themselves. The point right here is this, Did Jesus fun- damentally misconceive the character of the Old Testa- ment? Did he take for a created and immediate revela- tion what was of a slow and ordinary growth? Or was He dishonest, and did He make about Abraham, for example, statements and representations which belong only to a geographical myth — a personality which never existed? The authority of Jesus Christ, God speaking — not from heaven only, but with human lips — has given a sanction to every book and sentence in the Jewish canon, and blas- phemv is written on the forehead of any theory which alleges imperfection, error, contradiction or sin in any book in the sacred collection. The Old Testament was Our Lord's onlv study book. On it His spiritual life was nurtured. In all His life it was His only reference. Through His Apostles He reaffirmed it. Five hundred and four times is the Old Testament quoted in the New. 5. The whole Jewish nation, down to this day, acknowl- edge, without one dissenting voice, the genuineness of the Old Testament. The Book reflects upon them and con- demns them ; it also goes to build up Christianity, a sys- tem which they hate, and yet, impressed with an unalterable conviction of their divine origin, they have, at the expense of everything dear to man, clung to the Old Testament Scriptures. 6. All churches, everywhere and always, and with one ac- cord, declare the Bible in both Testaments to be the founda- tion of their creed. All the fathers, Melito, Origen, Cyril, Athanasius, in their lists include the whole thirty-nine books. The Council of Laodicea, held in the year 363, names and confirms them. 94 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 7. The books hang together and form one perfect unity which cannot be impaired in the smallest particular without mutilation and loss. The attempt to remove any book or part of a book would at once open an unthought of gap which nothing but that book or fragment could fill. A while ago an effort was made to discredit Jonah as fable, but it was found that the Deity of Christ went down with Jonah, that the linchpin between the Testaments fell out with Jonah, and the mass of evidence in favor of the book became so overwhelming that its doughty opponents beat a hasty and cowardly retreat into apology, retraction and silence. II. The Old Testament is inspired from end to end — that is our second point. What do we mean by this? We mean infallibility and perfection. We mean that the books are of absolute authority, demanding an unlimited submission. We mean that Genesis is as literally the Word of God as are the Gospels — Joshua as is the Acts — Proverbs as are the Epistles — the Song of Solomon as is the Revela- tion. We mean that the writings were inspired. Nothing is said in the Bible about the inspiration of the writers. It is of small importance to us who wrote Ruth. It is of every importance that Ruth was written by God. How did God write? On Sinai, He wrote, we are told, with his finger. We are told this in seven different places. "The tables were the work of God," says Moses, "and the writing was the writing of God." "The Lord delivered unio me two Tables of Stone written with the finger of God." Let me think, every time I read the ten commandments. "God's finger traced the square Hebrew characters that make these words. But, if this be true of Exod. XX, then it is true of the whole Canon. The human element vanishes and lays bare the Divine. It is God who writes the Book — a letter and a message straight from heaven. "I have written to him the great things of My Law." On the original parch- ment every sentence, word, line, mark, point, pen-stroke, jot, tittle, was put there by God. But God wrote, not only as on Sinai, but also through men. How did He do this? He did not do it contrary to them : as one would take the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 95 fingers of a wilful schoolboy and force them to make certain marks on a slate or in a copy-book. God wrote above them, for they themselves "inquired what things they were which the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify." "Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us did they minister the things which are reported." God used men with different degrees of style. He made Amos write like a herdsman and David like a poet. He made the difference, provided for it and employed it because He would have variety and adapt Himself to all classes and ages. He wrote through the men. How did He do this ? I do not know. The fact, I know, for I am told it. The secret is His own. I read that "holy men of old spake as they were moved" — then they did not choose their own language. I do not know how the electric fluid writes letters on a strip of paper. I do not know how my soul dictates to and controls my body so that the moving of my finger tips is the action of my soul. I do not know how, in regeneration, God does all and I do all. He produces all and I act all, for what He produces is my act. Inspiration is a matter of Divine testimony. It was God Himself, we are told, who "at sundry times and in divers manners, spake, in time past unto the fathers by the prop- hets." "But there are variations in the readings !" There may be in some cases in the copies — but none in the original — which God made and which He will preserve in spite of all variations. "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." If settled there, earth cannot move it. "But there are discrepancies — contradictions." No ! Scores of times I have corrected myself, but never God's word. Patience and a larger knowledge will solve every knot. Dr. Hodge of Princeton, says: "Not one single instance of a discrepancy in Scripture has ever been proved." The Scripture of the Old Testament must be directly in- spired because it reveals, behind the act, the inner, secret thoughts and motives. Who but the Searcher of hearts, — what man or angel were competent for this? 9b THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. The Scripture of the Old Testament, as a revelation, must be free from error, or, if not, it is inferior to certain works of man. Euclid, for instance. Algebra, for instance. He who charges error charges it on God. The Scripture of the Old Testament must be directly in- spired because it reverses human thought and gives God's order — a spiritual order, not man's. Would all the united wisdom of men have led them to relate the history of the creation of the universe in a single chapter, and that of the erection of the Tabernacle in thirteen? The description of the great edifice of the world, would it not seem to require more words than that of a small tent? That would be man's thought. What is God's? The Tabernacle was a figure of the Church, and God would show that the world is less than the Church and was created only as a platform for the Church by which His manifold wisdom is to be made known to principalities and powers. So far from the Bible being imperfect in its beginnings and growing to be perfect — rising as it advances, from a merely ethnic level to a higher level is, from the first, super- natural and therfore perfect — perfect as God, of whom it is the absolute and inerrant disclosure and transcript. Un- changeable as God is, its ipse dixit is final. The historical books of the Old Testament, as we have them in their order down to II. Kings, are logically and chronologically successive — in the line of God's purpose and His working, as they ought to be — and they form a suc- cinct and continuous history which is supplemented, but not deranged by other books. The contention of the Modern School is that the books and even their contents are not chronological but simply a con- geries of material thrown together by compilers. But never does the name of a compiler appear. No one yet has had imagination enough to invent a plausible name. According to this theory Moses could not have written Genesis i and 2, because the abstract name of God is given in the account of creation but the covenant name "Jehovah" when it comes to fellowship with man. It is said, too, that Abraham was a myth intended to repre- sent a period and tide of emigration. It is said that the story of Joseph was written by two men, one of whom was friendly THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 97 to Reuben and the other to Juclah. It is said that the reli- gious laws and ordinances of the Old Covenant were not given once for all, in permanent form, from Sinai and in the Pentateuch, but grew up under human teachers and by a process of natural development or evolution, so that Deuter- onomy is the last of all the books — except perhaps the Psalms, only two of which, the 7th and the 18th, were writ- ten by David — the rest were exilic and dated from Baby- lon. The result of all this is what ! To discredit the statement repeated in almost every chapter of Exodus and Leviticus — "And the Lord said to Moses." "As the Lord commanded Moses." To charge Christ with falsehood, who says "Moses said," "Moses taught you," "David says" — quoting as He does not from the 7th and the 18th only, but from the 41st, the 110th, the 118th and other Psalms. The result is to disintegrate the Bible and throw it into heaps of confusion mingled with rubbish — to shake faith to the very founda- tions and scatter Revelation to the winds. It is to elevate Robertson Smith, Wellhausen, Baur, Astruc, Cheyne and other heretics, who seem to have taken God into their own hands, to a level with the Saviour of men and His prophets, whom they criticise freely. This is not exegesis, it is con- spiracy. It is not contribution to religious knowledge, it is crime! Think of the amazing, the stupendous difference between Christ quoting from a human compilation, or from the living Oracles of God ! "I came not to destroy," He says, "but to fulfil" — to fulfil what? A hap-hazard collection of Ezra's time — made up of fragmentary documents of men. some of whom had an inspiration little above that of Browning and Tennyson ! III. What then, is the relative value of the Old Testa- ment? 1. It is of equal value with the New. We have seen that every word of it was penned by God. The words of God are of an equal value. 2. The Old Testament impresses the most awful truths concerning the personality and holiness of God and the cer- tainty of His law and its penalty. 98 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. In the Old Testament God is seen above, apart from the universe — not immanent, but pre-manent — Self Existent, while the universe depends upon Him, creating it, control- ling it and working in and through it. In the Old Testament the holiness of God is seen reflected in His law and its penalty. Sinners against nature die. The Antediluvians die. The Sodomites die. Nadab and Abihu die. Leprosy seizes Gehazi. On Sinai the Law thunders as nowhere else in the whole Bible. The mountain rocks un- der the presence and voice of Jehovah. Hell in its most awful disclosure lies open in the Old Testament. The steps of men are seen "taking hold on hell." "The wicked shall be turned into hell." "The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fear- fulness hath surprised the hypocrites : who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with Everlasting burnings?'' 3. The Old Testament teaches and impresses each one of the doctrines of grace. The doctrine of depravity. It shows sin a serpent in the Garden. It declares that every imagination of the thought of man's heart is only evil continually. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity," says David, "and in sin did my mother conceive me." St. Paul, to emphasize the depravity of man, quotes everywhere from the Old Testament. The doctrine of election is taught everywhere in the Old Testament. "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." "Blessed is the man whom Thou chooest and causest to ap- proach unto Thee." Israel is everywhere a chosen people. The doctrine of justification by faith is explicitly taught in the Old Testament. "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteous- ness without works, saying: Blessed is the man whose in- iquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered." The doctrine of regeneration — of a new heart, of a new birth, of a new spirit — is taught in the Old Testament. "Create within me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." "A new heart also will I give unto you and a new spirit will I put within you." Christ tells Nico- demus, a master in Israel, that he ought to have known this. The doctrine of the preservation of the Saints is every- where taught in the Old Testament. "The mountains shall THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 99 depart and the hills be removed before God will ever break His promise to save His people who trust Him." "Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." Had we the Old Testament alone it would be sufficient to save us. I myself was converted on that very part of Isaiah which the critics say he did not write. Men have been converted by the millions and are now in heaven who never knew anything but the Old Testament. They found God in it, and so may you and I. 4. The Old Testament throws a light upon Christ and upon the whole Christian system without which the New Testament could not be understood. Atonement looms in Abel's altar and runs on to the Great Substitute to be stricken for His people, upon whom the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all. "The life of the flesh is in the Blood." says Leviticus, "and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul — for it is the Blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Blood drips from each page of the Old Testament. Each letter stars crimson. What is all this, if not Christ? The Old Testament is the dictionary and key to the New. If with the Old Testa- ment and without Christ we were helpless, equally — with- out the Old Testament and with Christ — we should be helpless. I beseech you, therefore, Brethren, beware of what is called "the modern school." 5. The entire Old Testament is typical. "All these things," says St. Paul, were types — xvitoi, raw a Ss itavra. There is a mystical sense in the Scripture which ought to make men afraid of it. God and His purpose runs through it all. Melchizedeck, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jonah, all typify Christ. Christ was the Manna in the wilderness. Christ was the Stricken Rock. Hagar is the Covenant of works, Sarah is the Covenant of grace. Turn the pages reverently, prayerfully, I beg you, for these and ten thousand other mysteries, undiscovered yet, lie hidden in these Oracles of God. There is a closeness and a detail of correspondence between the story of ancient Israel and the experience of the Christian soul and the life of the Christian Church which is the result of no accident — the caprice of no compiler. ioo THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living green," is no pictured fancy of what the Old Testament reveals. 6. The whole Old Testament is prophetic of Christ. "These are they which testify of Me." Each phase of His suffering is depicted down to the casting of lots for His vesture: each phase of His glory from His triumphant entry into Jerusalem upon an ass's colt to the consummation of His Messianic and Davidic throne. St. Paul tells us that the Gospel of God to which he was separated, had been "prom- ised before by the prophets in the Holy Scripture concern- ing His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." St. John tells us that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The whole Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, spells "Jesus," "Jesus only." "Christ is the end, as Christ was the beginning; Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ." 7. The entire scheme of right and sound theology de- pends upon the Old Testament. St. Paul argues in Romans and in Galatians that Abraham was not justified by works but by simple faith and therefore that we may be. He argues in Romans 5 that if the whole race fell by representa- tion in Adam as their federal head — if we were condemned on the ground of what one man did, without having a hand in it — then there is a loophole by which we can be saved on the ground of what another Man — a second Adam — has done, without having a hand in that either. May God enable us to seize upon that loophole of escape and rescue and to shun the errors which are in the air all around us and are drifting so much of the misdirected zeal and learning of the present generation into a blind alley, from which there is no safe issue but return. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 101 COSMOGONY: A STUDY OF THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF GENESIS. 'Tn the beginning-, God created the Heavens and the Earth !" Here are the Pillars of Hercules through which we pass from Time with all its changes, into Eternity — a shoreless, changeless sea. Here are the frontiers of human exploration, beyond which rolls and surges the illimitable Ocean of Deity, self-existent, blessed forever and independ- ent of all creatures. The first utterance of the Bible fixes it that matter is not eternal. That there was a point when the universe was not and when God, by simple fiat, brought it into being. So that, as the apostle says, He called the Existent out of the non-existent — the visible from that which had no visibility. In other words, God made the world out of nothing — an awful nothing — the idea of which we cannot comprehend. A lonely and a solitary Worker, out of emptiness, He created fullness — out of what was not, all things — getting from Himself the substance as well as the shaping — the fact as well as the how. In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth ! He had to tell us that, for He only was there. Pie had to tell us that, but — being told, we, at once, believe it, for everything outside the self existent must have a beginning. Matter must have had a beginning, for — push its molecules back as far as you will, either matter was the egg out of which God was hatched or God hatched matter. Can there be any question as to which of these is true? "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." If this first sentence is unauthentic, the whole Bible is untrue and for six thousand years men have been duped and deluded who have loved and cherished its teach- ings. If this first sentence is, however, to be relied on, then God is the author and the book is true in all its chain of history and doctrine — true throughout. The credibility of the Bible, then, depends upon the truth of the First Chapter of Genesis. If that chapter is clean 102 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. and clear in all its statements, so is the Book. If that chapter contains "a few small scientific lies," then the Book is a caries of deceptions from cover to cover. Thus we are either Christians or sceptics ! The Bible says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Heathen philosophy has always said : In the beginning the universe commenced to evolve itself. The Bible says : "God created man male and female and, from one pair, one race." Ancient philosophy knew nothing about this. Each tribe, each nation had its own local traditions, deities and legends. The original bond uniting all people, in one blood, was unknown. Each na- tion was supposed to have sprung directly from the earth, or to have emigrated from a region where their- ancestors so sprung. Outside of the Bible nowhere was there a notion of the human race as a unit, nor of its having any other than an autochthonous, — i. e., a material and earthly origin. It has been claimed that no essential injury is done to Christian faith by concessions made to modern criticism — that if one believes in redemption, it is of small account what he believes of creation. But men who speak so rashly, overlook the fact that creation is the basis of redemption, — that there must be man and man fallen before there can be man saved — and that the belief in creation depends en- tirely upon the acknowledgment of Genesis, as a historical document. The First Book of the Scripture is the germ of the whole — the root out of which grows every idea that is found in the Bible. It is not possible to kill the germ — to hurt the root without destroying the tree. The Book of Genesis then, occupies a position of pre- eminent value and sacredness. With what an awe should we unfold its pages. But for this Book, man would not know how he had been formed, nor for what purpose — he would not know that he was in the image of God created with the promise and the prospect of an everlasting life. The earlier chapters of Genesis, by revealing to man what manner of being he is, and what are his relations to God, lay the foundations of all true piety — all saving knowledge and all real and genuine religion. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 103 "In the beginning, God created.'' This destroys the eternity of matter, but — matter once created, there is a choice in describing its progress. One thing: as to what is left out. A chasm of ages on ages splits between the first verse and the second. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, But the earth was Tohu vail Vohu, without form and void. It was not created so, for God creates nothing imperfect, and the prophet Isaiah expressly says, "He created it not Tohu" — it was not created without form and void. Then there had been a change and a lapse in it. Here, then, between the first and second verses, comes in the history and fall of angels. That must be passed by for the present. Undoubtedly God could have stopped to describe the heavens — angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and principalities and powers — the man- ner and the reason of Satan's fall and how he drew legions after him into the abyss, plunging our solar system, his special province, into chaos. But to have stopped on this would have been to confuse everything. We do not put syntax into an A. B. C. book — nor the Binomial Theorem into the first pages of algebra. To have delayed on this would have involved the use of heavenly language which we could not understand, or if earthly words were used, our thoughts must have been wholly diverted from ourselves, our fraility, our guilt and need, to an unwholesome speculation about things which do not concern us. Because the Bible is addressed to the inhabitants of earth, it comes down to earth as soon as possible, and speaks to us in a terrestrial language. If, then, it gives us the facts about the earth, as they occurred, — and if it states them ac- cording to appearances without going behind the appear- ances— if it speaks of the sun's rising and setting, that is only common-sense, it is only speaking as the wisest astronomers among us do, who know perfectly well that the sun does not rise nor set at all, but that the Earth turns toward and away from him — and yet they talk of sunrise and of sunset, too. The Bible, to be useful to us, must speak according to appearances. If one were describing a panorama, he would io4 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. not confuse his description by going back of the moving picture to the machinery which was working behind it, nor proceed to tell how the artist came to conceive the thought of a panorama, nor when nor how he planned the part and details of the moving scene. A person coming home to you and attempting to give you some distinct notion of the pano- rama itself would not philosophize but would start with the painting, as it starts and follow it, in memory and in nar- rative, as it unrolls before his eyes. Such is God's method in describing the Creation — His simple, sublime and common-sense method — a method in- volving the soundest philosophy — if we wish to employ such a word. For suppose that, instead of giving us a popular and easy book, God had set forth to give us an abstract and scientific one, — from what point of observation shall He speak? Shall He start from the sun and tell us that the earth is a globe, and give us its relations to the sun? Or shall He go back of and above the sun and speak from Alcyone and tell us all about other solar systems and their circulations in the heavens ? Shall He speak in such a way as to be intelligible to the age of Shem, or of Ptolemy, or of Copernicus or to that of some later and future astronomer who shall have discovered more than they knew? Besides : where, in all this, were a revelation concerning God Himself, and our relations to Him and especially as fallen creatures who need to be saved? As De Ouincy has suggested, it would have been impos- sible for any messenger from God to have descended to the communication of mere worldly scientific truth. First. Because such a descent would have degraded and neutralized his mission by pandering to profitless and dis- sipating curiosity. Again : it would have raised disputes in which all spiritual truth would have been lost. Suppose the speaker to have made the statement that the earth is moving at the rate of one thousand miles an hour, — one man cries out, "Ridicu- lous— I do not feel it move." A discussion begins which puts a pause to anything further. The inspired speaker or writer is ruined with his audience by stating a scientific truth in advance of them. He feeds them with meat and not with milk which thev are able to bear. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 105 Then, again : The Bible must not teach anything which man can teach himself. A Revelation from God is given to tell us — not what we do not yet know, but what we can- not, without it, by any possibility, find out. What we can find out by study, investigation and dis- covery, God leaves us to find out. That is His wise arrange- ment for enlarging and developing our powers. Nor will He interfere with that arrangement. He will not come into the world to tell us about astronomy, steam, electricity and chemical elements. We must., for ourselves, invent the tele- scope— the condensing cylinder — the battery, the retort. God will not dishonor Himself by descending into the arena of science to make Himself man's rival and to contend with him — so to say — "for His own prizes.1" A Revelation has not come into the world for the purpose of showing to in- dolent men what, by faculties already given, they may show to themselves, but, to shine in upon their moral darkness and disclose things wholly supernatural and beyond the ken or reach of human powers, — facts, like the Trinity — In- carnation— Salvation, and Eternal Justice burning to the depthlessness of hell. So, then, to do us any good, the Bible must speak to men on earth in a terrestrial language and, beginning with the plain statement of necessary facts, go straight forward, leading man — with light enough from the very first to save him, on into the vast disclosures of the Scheme of Grace, as he is able to bear them. This is the Common-Sense of the First Chapter of Genesis — The fact of an instantaneous and perfect crea- tion is stated. Then— omitting the fall of angels, with the catastrophe which it involved to our earth, and the satanic forms of Saurians and other horrible reptiles into which the fallen angels were cast, — the second verse in contrast takes up the earth in collapse and in six days builds it up again. The Hebrew verb, bara, "to create from nothing," is used in the first verse, but in all the succeeding verses, with two re- markable exceptions — the creation of animal life on the fifth day, and the creation of the human soul on the sixth — another verb, which signifies "to modify" or "shape," is con- io6 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. stantly employed. God creates only at crises and from necessity. Then He revamps and moulds to higher forms, and varied uses. So we read, in the first verse, bara, "He created," but, afterward, asah, "He made or stretched out the firmament," and so on. As to the days of Genesis I., there is no geology in them — that is to say, there are no ages upon ages of Silurian and other changes. Whatever geological phenomena we may not refer to the flood, and it will no doubt largely account for them, — whatever other cataclysms and melting of the rocks, and whatever reptilian age there may have been, occurs between the first and second verses of the chapter. There, in the split chasm and in the silence, which God Himself has left unfilled, Geology has all the room it wants in which to work. As to the length of the Creation days. Men have stoutly contended that they were not days — that the Hebrew yom does not mean days, but indefinite periods. In reply, it is easy for the Christian scholar to say : The word yom might possibly mean an indefinite period, if there were any necessity or call for this — since "one day is, with the Lord, as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." But there is no necessity, but great confusion, in making the Genesis days each of them one thousand years long: i. In the first place there is the "evening" and the "morning" — the sunset of the first day and the sunrise of the next described. Diurnal days are twenty-four hours, not one thousand years long. 2. No solid reason whatever appears why the word "day" should be taken or explained in a figurative, meta- phorical sense. If God meant "indefinite periods," there is a Hebrew word for it. If He meant years He could easily have said "years," or "centuries," or "millenniums," or "eons." If He said "days," He means days — He means us to get that impression. 3. The work of reconstruction could have been in- stantaneous— light, darkness, sea, land, plants, animals and man might have been brought into being at once, had God willed it. Why not, then, in successive stages, marked by THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 107 revolutions of the globe? It is not said, in Genesis I., that the present arrangement of our world, as a suitable place for man, was a work of creation or making out of nothing. It is distinctly said that "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and that afterward, in six days He made material and created things to assume their present form. A man may make a table or a sofa in six days, but no one supposes he made the wood in six days. On the first day the earth was without form, but the materials for rearrangement were there. On entering a foundry, we often see a large number of broken pieces of machinery ready to be recast into different shapes and ma- chines from what they were before. So with the earth in chaos on the first day. All the forms of the preceding plan had been broken up, awaiting the word which was to call them afresh into shape and beauty. The materials for the re-arrangement were there — then' in six days the re-ar- rangement was completed. In six literal, natural days, for: 4. If the Sun, which had been obscured before by dark- ness and mephitic vapors, appeared again the fourth day, then the first three days were common, ordinary days, and then, too, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh. And, 5. It would have been impossible to guard the keeping of the Fourth Commandment on any other than a twenty- four-hour basis. God commands us to keep the Sabbath because He kept it, — not because He rested for a thousand years after creating Adam, before He did anything else, — leaving Adam and Eve one thousand years in Paradise, — and not because He is indefinitely keeping it now, but be- cause He actually and definitely kept it then and caused Adam and Eve and all the animals and all creation to keep it as the last and fitting finale — when He had finished His work. Now, take it the other way, and read the Fourth Com- mandment in the critical light : "Remember the seventh in- definite period to keep it holy. Six indefinite periods shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh indefinite period thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, . . . for, in six indefinite periods the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them 108 THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. is, and rested the seventh period, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh indefinite period and hallowed it" — That is to say, there is no such thing as a Sabbath of twenty- four hours and the Commandment placed as the very key- stone and decalogue is shown an absurdity ! But, 6. The controversy concerning the Sabbath, which com- menced with the apostasy and has continued ever since, was foreseen before the creation and it was for that very reason, according to the Scriptures, that the six days of twenty-four hours each, were made the divisions of the Genesis week. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." In confirmation of this, we find the Lord saying: "Verily, My Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holy unto the Lord. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested." The Sabbath was instituted in Paradise and ever since has been a sign and a testimony that in the six natural days preceding its institution the Lord was working and that He rested on the consecrated seventh day. 7. The Sabbath Law founded on Genesis I. lies in the very constitution of moral being. God has so adjusted man and nature that one-seventh of our time must be given to Him, or the world goes to ruin. Heathenism depends on getting away from this law. Heathenism has no sabbath, and heathenism speaks its own condemnation. True reli- gion depends on getting back to the sabbath. So far from being an appendage to the decalogue, the Fourth Com- mandment is basal. It is the center and root. If there be no periodic and appointed time of rest, then there can be no proper worship of God — no general agreement as to any time ; and no proper opportunity in which, apart from worldly cares, to consider what is due to God and what is due to man. Idolatry goes with the abolition of the sabbath, and disobedience, murder and uncleanness go with the abolition of the sabbath. On the Fourth Commandment hangs the whole Law. It is fundamental — so fundamental as to be the ground-work of everything. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 109 God only knows the exact proportion of time which we shouM offer as a tribute to Him. He requires the one- seventh part of our lives. He has fixed the proportion as He has fixed seven notes in music — seven colors in the spectrum — seven wave-beats in light and in the ocean. The number seven, called by the fathers aeiparthenos, "always a Virgin," follows the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. It is the Lord's Day and He made it and we will rejoice in it and be glad. It is a day — -not a century. How could a dying creature work six centuries and then do nothing for a hundred years? It is a day— not a year — how much more suitable for man, frail transitory pilgrim here, to have rest often — than to work incessantly six years and then do nothing! The First Chapter of Genesis lies at the bottom of every- thing. It founds creation on God, and religion on the Sab- bath. Take away the first — creation, and you have chaos. Not perfection, but chaos, and chaos without a fall — unac- countable chaos — call it atoms — call it fire mist — swell out your pomposity and call it the Nebular Hypothesis — in Eng- lish, "the Nebular Guess," — Call it what you please — it is something without a First Cause. It is rank heathen specula- tion and darkness. Take away the second — the sabbath, and there is no meeting-ground on which to worship, and the knowledge of God, even if a God be granted, is lost. The second Chapter of Genesis makes a transition. It passes not onlv from the material creation to the moral creation, but from God, as abstract, to Go 1 in touch with man and in covenant. This involves, r. A chancre in the Divine Name. 2. The Nobility of Man as created. And. 1. A change in the Divine Name. On reading the First Chapter, one will have noticed that the uniform word for the Almighty is "God." But when we come to the Second Chapter of Genesis another title is introduced. It is no longer Elohim, "God," but Jehovah Elohitn, "LoRD-God" The critics have seized upon this to assert two different no THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. documents, by different writers, — one of which they call the "Elohistic," document, and the other the "Jehovistic," — their aim being to prove that Moses was not the only writer of Genesis. The difficulty with Higher Criticism is that it disbelieves in advance and the reason of this too frequently is that it is working with a brain whose crooked and vapid conclu- sions are guided by a heart averse to God — at enmity with God and working every way to get rid of Him. It is re- markable that the only thing which God claims of man is his heart — a humble, docile, teachable spirit. It is by this — i. e., through a right and proper instinct in him, that all just con- ceptions and explanations of Scripture will be attained. Now, to a simple, child-like, appreciative faith, this change from "God' to "Lord God" is most significant and congruous and beautiful. "God," the abstract God of na- ture— the material, is not the God of man — the moral. And so, as Moses advances to this moral, he reveals a more inti- mate and tender side of the Divine character. The word "Lord'' is employed — a word which means Owner, Posses- sor— One who treasures and cherishes, One whose affec- tions are centered upon and wrapt up in what is to be made. Before, it was creation in power, — now it is creation in love and the word changes from "God" to "Lord" — a gracious, sovereign, Preserver, Protector and Benefactor. Let me go even further here, and suggest that the word "Lord" may refer to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who at this point discloses Himself. God the Father has been seen by no man, but God the Son constantly appears as the Jehovah of the Old Testament — the Angel or the Messenger Who is the Lord — the Word by Whom were created all things. It is wonderfully glorious to glimpse the shadow of the Lord Jesus thus thrown upon the foreground in the crea- tion of man. How near to us we find Him away back among the trees of the Garden. How spontaneously rise to our lips the words so familiar "Jesus, Thy name I love All other names above, Jesus, my Lord!" THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. in See then a reason for the change in these words as we pass on to the second chapter. See how consistent Moses is — and why should he not be consistent? Modern Ex- egetes may contend that several writers have shared in the composition of Genesis, but — apart from the absurdity of a mosaic which is not Mosaic, the ordinary Christian will never consent to lose Moses, — the man with an unparalleled public — with an unparalleled vocation and unparalleled en- dowments— the man endorsed by Christ Himself as its author, from under the foundation, of the book. The Book depends on Moses — on his authority and name. Moses wrote the Pentateuch — the whole Pentateuch and the Pentateuch as a whole. We must either so receive it, or be driven finally to reject it all — from Genesis to Deute- ronomy. 2. It is by this admirable introduction, this significant alteration of the Divine Name, that we are led to appre- hend the true nobility of man as the offspring, the product of a Divine forethought and affection. It was the creation of a being having a Divine element, — it was the creafion of a perfect being, — it was the creation of something responsible. (i) It was the creation of a being having a Divine ele- ment. It is not easy to rise to this conception in our thoughts at once, and because the Divine element has been so sadly lost by us in the fall. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'' And it is a sufficient evi- dence of the fact that we have fallen, that we figure Adam as, at most, a blithesome, innocent child of nature, a sort of handsome or unhandsome savage. Whereas, a sound re- flection would teach us that a being able and warranted to hold communion with the Great First Cause of all things, must stand, ipso facto, on an elevation vastly higher than that of the greatest men of any succeeding economy — that he must see light in God's light and be himself, a little god reflecting God and surveying life and the world from a vantage ground far loftier than that of our supremest genius. Man was an immediate creation, the recipient of a Divine ii2 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. nature and of a higher Divine nature even than the angels. So that there is no link between man and the animal such as fond and foolish evolutionists have dreamed. I know that it has been asserted that the monkey is the embryo human — so that if you keep a baboon long enough it will develop itself into a man. But this is to imagine that an ape can lift itself into a Divine nature and become god-like. A fancy not only absurd, but profane. The man who makes himself, in thought, an ape, is guilty of sacrilege. He sins against the Temple of the Holy Ghost. So patent is this that Professor Virchow, the foremost of German scientists, has said: "I have nothing to do with the conception that man emerged from the animal — for, as a matter of fact, not one link of transistion has ever been found." Below the lowest limit in man there drops a gulf that is infinite. Besides : if man was once a beast, he may become bestial again — since nothing is easier than to relapse, to fall back- ward. An outlook sufficiently appalling, one would sup- pose, to make even error see that it has overshot itself. And further : the uniqueness of nobility in man appears in the position which he was to occupy here below. God had already made the earth and formed its living tenantry, but there still lacked the Crown and Capital, the ruler and the priest of all. Man must be made for God, since earth was made for man, — for man to control it — to stand with his hand upon the tiller and to steer the floating orb on to its physical and moral destiny. What sort of a being must that be — the Eve of creation to see the Invisible who gov- erns it — the Ear of creation to hear and to obey His bid- ding— the High Priest of creation, to gather in his censer and to offer up the incense of its varied and united worship? What wonder that we read that God, so to say, imparted Himself to him — that what He would not stoop to do to an animal. He stoops to do to a man, when, kissing him upon his lips, He breathes into his nostrils the ineffable nishamah, making him immortal as God! That brings us to notice, (2) The Creation of man was that of a perfect being. Not of a being confirmed in holiness, but of a being holy, although unconfirmed. It was the beautiful Vase of the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 113 Potter finished, but with its clay not yet porcelain — its colors not burned in. Adam had all the perfection he would ever have, or could have — only he must stay what he was. As a moral being, he was perfect in that highest of all perfection — Insight, Intuition, — the faculty by which the soul, illumined by the light of God, has an immediate per- ception of character as moral. We find traces of this wonderful endowment still, especi- ally in women and little children. God has given woman a defense against moral evil in her instinct. She need not be deceived. She must blind herself to be deceived. The instinctive knowledge of character manifested by the youngest child is also a proof of this innate inheritance — that singular attraction to or repulsion from a stranger which a child will show even before it can speak. Adam had this in the highest degree. No cloud of sin shut out the light of God from his soul, but, full of light, and turning light on everything around him, he could in- stinctively discern the Mind of God in all His works and appropriately name and describe them all, in agreement with the purpose of God in creating them. This is the deep spiritual meaning of the nineteenth and twentieth verses, where we are told that "the Lord God brought every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air to Adam to see what he would name them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name there- of,"— so clear was his intuition that he made no mistake. Adam, then, knew the serpent and the fearful danger which lay below that subtlety — that finesse which, while still innocent, is yet so close to falseness, to obliquity, to twist and to deceit, as to become the aptest instrument for Satan. Adam perfectly knew the serpent as he passed him in review among the other animals. And, endowed with this perception of character, Eve would have at once seen into that of her tempter, had her eyes not been occupied with the beauty of the deadly fruit. Man w-as made perfect. His body was of dust, but it was the efflorescence of dust, just as the diamond is made of charcoal, but is yet the diamond. His soul was made in the likeness of God — immortal as God is — holy as God is — ii4 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. happy as God is, — in all respects, in intellect, imagination, feelings, will, conformed to God. And — of this perfection, his external appearance was an expression not only in the loftiness of his brow and the majesty of his mien, but in the halo of light thrown about him. This is the meaning of the words : "They were naked and were not ashamed. They wore no clothing, but were not therefore without effulgence shining from them and around them which wrapped them in a radiant and trans- lucent cloudy robe — and in a certain lovely way obscured their outlines. It is contrary to nature and it is repulsive to us that anything should be unclothed and absolutely bare. Each bird has its plumage and each animal its coat, and there is no beauty if the covering be removed. Strip the most beautiful bird of its feathers, and, though the form remain unchanged, we no longer admire it. We conceive, then, that artists are wholly at fault and grossly offend against purity when they paint the human form unclothed and plead as an excuse the case of Adam in Eden. They fail to understand the wondrous meaning of the passage. Could the animals in all their splendid covering coats have bowed down as to the Vicegerents of God, — before beings wholly unclothed? Should Adam, the Crown and the King of Creation, be the only living thing without a screen? Impossible. To the spiritual sense there certainly is a hint of something about our first parents that impressed and overawed the animal creation and was an all-sufficient reason why — so far from being ashamed, they should rather be in danger of an undue exaltation. What was that thing? What, in the light of other Scrip- tures, could it have been? What, but that shining forth like the sun which describes the body of the resurrection? If the face of Moses so shone by reflection that the child- ren of Israel were afraid to come nigh him, — how much more must the indwelling Spirit of God in Adam and Eve have flung around them a radiance which made all creation do them reverence as they approached — beholding in them the Image and likeness of the Lord God Almighty — glori- ous in brightness — shining like a sun ! This explains the expression, "They were not ashamed." It also explains what is said of them after they sinned: THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 115 "They ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree," and as they ate, the light within them dimmed and shone out no more. Their halo had vanished, and the Holy Spirit of righteous- ness which had been to them a covering of transcendent light and purity withdrew and they saw and felt that they were stript and bare and naked, and, shivering in the un- clothing, they feared and fled away into the thick woods to hide there. Man thus created perfect, had perfect surroundings. He was in the enjoyment of two things, society and abundance. Adam had an equal and a kindred spirit to be his com- panion, and to both it was said : "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it." Go on from better to better and from success to success. These two things, society and success, are the sum of earthly good. But, (3) The creation of man was that of something respon- sible. That is the higher meaning of the Garden and the Tree. For is not man set before us as a being whose perfec- tion consists in exercising self-control and in accepting limits? The fish of the sea — the birds of heaven roamed at their will, through ocean and through air; the beasts grazed where they would, and this unrestrained life of theirs showed that they were far removed from God and from His covenant. But now : When God creates a sovereign of the world in His own likeness — one who is to be His Vicegerent, one who is to respond to the mind of God by willing as He wills and accepting His limitations — a Garden is fenced in, and man, though lord of the whole earth, is not permitted to roam recklessly at will, but is set to fix the center and the nucleus of outer circles of dominion in a holy and a settled home. He is to begin with a garden and prove that he can dress it and keep it. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he control the destinies of a Church which is to fill the world? The fruits of the Garden also were to be man's for food, but there must be a limit also to his appetite. Of one tree he was not to eat. He was thus confronted by law. The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, was implanted in him, n6 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. and it was upon his subjection to and dependence upon the Divine will that his future was suspended. With these sublime Chapters — the opening words of the inspired Volume — before us, let us now draw from them certain corollaries and conclusions — and, i. How can we know about the origin of things save as we are taught by One who was in existence before them? As no creature can rise above its experience, so no cerature can knozv creation. We cannot have the thought or know the fact save as we receive it on testimony which is Divine. That makes it that, from the very first, the Bible, trans- cending all other books, comes down from above, bringing its own light. It makes it that we must receive the revela- tion as from God or grope forever in darkness. 2. Creation — a fact, settles and moulds all our theology. If we believe that by an evolution of mere nature, there can be the spiritual, we shall have a religion of reforms, of ef- forts, of self-manufacture, of endeavor to work the "old man" over into the "new." But if we believe that the devel- opment of the old man, however strenuous, will be only worse and worse; then we are thrown back on God. If we believe that nature is one thing and grace another and that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God ; then we shall see how perfectly in accord with the doctrine of an instant creation is the doctrine of an instant regeneration — in which something is given and infused and imparted which was not in the man before. Then we shall see how consistent with God's work from the beginning, is the statement of the apostle. "If any man be in Christ, he is kainc Ictisis a new creation — old things have passed away; behold all things are become new." Evolution is the blank denial and destruction of the Christian system. Neither in whole, nor in part, will ortho- dox men ever admit a development anti-vital. Conception, the beginning of natural life, is a flash — the soul, a direct impartation from God — a creation from nothing. So is the spiritual life — the Divine nature, — it is something formed out of the breath of the Eternal God and breathed into my soul. 3. The Bible teaches that man is the noblest being in the universe. That there is no possible computation of what THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 117 God meant for him and means for him yet, — first to control himself — then the garden of his own house — then the world — then the universe. Destiny how overwhelming! How in such a prospect does the question press upon me — "What shall it profit a man if he shall prefer his own will — if he shall gain the whole world — as Adam gained the apple in his way, not God's way, and lose his own soul?" And, 4. The Chapters show that the entire controversy between God and man is one of will depending upon faith, or un- faith. There was nothing in the forbidden tree itself — whether it were a fig tree or not — to injure. The point was, would man believe God and obey Him simply because he was told to? He refused. His will clashed with God's and that ended it. He was divided from God and God could use him no more. Here looms before us, 5. The Great Principle of Faith. "By faith we under- stand that the worlds were made," — by faith we understand the new birth by the Spirit — by faith we trust in Christ and take Him as the Tree of Life. Our Lord so put it in His interview with Nicodemus. He said, "Ye must be born again — a mystery," and then He pointed to the Serpent on the pole. And St. John continues, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is Christ, is born of God." Adam lost Paradise by doubt; we recover it, in grand reversal, by a faith which overcomes the world. And, if this be so, then the end of philosophy, as of re- ligion, is to believe. Then the highest exercise of a crea- ture's reason is to receive the testimony of His Creator, and he who cannot believe gets not one step in God's direction. Then faith takes God's Word as true and does not recognize criticism — the pulling down of Revelation — as any proper department of knowledge. Then faith is positive and criti- cism a halting negation : so far from adding anything, it shows itself a perishing diminuendo — a perpetual substrac- tion, the attenuating process of which was well described by three cartoons I saw the other day and underneath them these three legends: First Cartoon and First Higher Critic : "The Bible in its n8 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. present mutilated and adulterated state needs a vast amount of work to make it serviceable." Second Cartoon and Second Higher Critic : ''It is a mis- take to cast aside so much of ancient lore. All it needs is to be scientifically understood." Third Cartoon and Third Higher Critic : "I have dis- posed of all the rest of the Bible, but I don't see anything the matter with the covers." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 119 JONAH, THE KEYSTONE OF THE TESTAMENTS. Luke xi :2g. "And when the people were gathered thick together, He began to say, This is an evil generation, they seek a sign and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet." Jonah has a peculiar place among the prophets. He was a very early prophet ; in fact he may be called the father of prophecy, since he is the oldest, or first of all the prophets who have left writings behind them — his, a book penned by his own hand. The book is so unique ; it is such a blending of the super- natural with the familiar, such an interposition of God in events, such a disclosure of human nature in the prophet — a book so profound in its spiritual mysteries, so progressive in its forecast of broader horizons, that, small as it is in its compass, it is undoubtedly the Keystone of the two Testa- ments— one wall of the arch of Revelation, the Old Testa- ment, built up on one side to meet it, and the other wall of the arch, the New Testament, built up on the other side to meet it, while, at the point of junction, it drops in, wedge- like, to bind them in unison. Jonah clasps Christ in the Old Testament ; Christ clasps Jonah in the New. It is to this extraordinary and exceptional character of the Book of Jonah that we may attribute the fact that in all ages, the sharpest and most skilful, the bitterest and most artfully concealed opposition of skeptical rationalism has been arrayed against it. The method of approach has usually been that of ridicule. There is just enough of the bizarre in the stupendous Mir- acle, around which the Book clusters, to provoke a sneer, and suggest an excuse for stigmatizing the entire narrative — as a minister, in high position, has recently ventured to do — as a fiction. In a series of startling sermons on the play of the imagination in the sacred writings, the clergyman re- ferred to has put the question — "Why should we think it is inconsistent with a reverence for the Bible as an inspired collection of literature — to think that the Book of Esther, 120 THE DOCTRINES 0E GRACE. the Book of Ruth, much of the Book of Daniel, and the story of Jonah and the great fish are fiction? It is a matter of no concern whatever spiritually whether we believe a great fish swallowed Jonah or not. No man is better for believing it ; no man is worse for- not believing it. Nothing in your life or mine depends upon the opinions we entertain on that subject." Feeling deeply, as I do, upon the subject of Divine In- spiration ; believing, as I do, that the honor of God, as well as the destiny of man is staked upon the veracity of His every word; assured as I am, that, if Jonah is fiction, the whole volume of which it forms a part is fiction — more than this, convinced as I am, that the evil wrought by any attack whether open, or more covert upon the integrity of Script- ure, is in proportion to the eminence of the man who pre- sumes to shock the common sentiment by making that attack — which, if made within the Church, is calculated to do ten- fold more mischief than all the sneers and cavils of acknow- ledged infidels and enemies outside — I feel called upon, so far as one pulpit at least is concerned, to rebuke and repel it. Let me invite you again to a review of this remarkable Book, the Book of Jonah, the very exceptional character of which arrests attention and awakens an expectancy of most important spiritual teaching. "Undoubtedly," said the great Brooklyn preacher, "There are some in this audience who will be disturbed in their faith by the suggestion that the story of Jonah and the Great Fish is a fiction." Precisely — then why disturb their faith? Why breathe the poisonous unholy suggestion? The question of the Miracle lies at the base of the Bible. Prove its miracles false and the foundation is out from under, the superstructure of revelation has fallen. The Bible is the only Book in the world — claiming to be a Divine Revelation — which professes to rest upon miracles. In other systems, as that of the Zend-Avesta, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, miracles hang upon them and are their appendage. They do not make salvation depend, as the Bible does, on belief in supernatural facts like that of the incarnation of Christ, a miracle without which our redemp- tion were impossible, or that of His resurretion — of which St. Paul says : "If Christ be not risen, if the Miracle be not THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. 121 a fact, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." To deny the Miracle then is to deny Revelation. It is to shut God out of His own Book and out of His universe. A God without miracles would be the Miracle of miracles. ''It is a superfluous question," says Funcke, ''whether God can work miracles, or whether it is necessary to our religious life that we believe in a God who works miracles. For if we have a God who cannot work them, we have a God who is not living, and, if we have a God who is not living, and able to communicate with men, we have no God at all. The question of the Miracle, then, is not secondary, but touches the very heart of religion." Lessing, whom no one could ac- cuse of pietism, said : "He who despoils religion of the things surpassing reason, has no religion any more." The infidel Rousseau exclaims: "Can God work miracles? The question is absurd, one would do the man who raises it too much honor to answer him, he should be sent to the mad- house." Deny the miracle in Jonah, and you deny it everywhere. Says St. Augustine, Quod aut omnia Divina miracula cre- dcnda non sunt, aut hoc, cur non creditor, causa nulla sit — "Either all Divine miracles are to be rejected, or there is no reason why this one should not be believed." There is nothing more improbable in it than in the splitting of the Red Sea, the falling of the walls of Jericho, or the standing still of the sun and the moon at the mandate of Joshua. "To my mind," says Kelly, "a miracle, although no doubt it is an exertion of Divine power, and entirely outside the ordinary experience of man, is the worthy intervention of God in a fallen world. It is a seal given to the truth, in the pitiful mercy of God who does not leave a fallen race and lost world to its own remediless ruin. So far, therefore, from miracles being the slightest real difficulty, any one who knows what God is might well expect Him to work them in such a world as this." Passing from these preliminary observations let me make three points : I. Christ Himself stands or falls with the Book of Jonah. 122 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. II. Jonah in his person and experience is a striking illus- tration of the Doctrines of Grace, III. Not only doctrine, but the Practical and experimental in religion are equally conspicuous in this great Missionary Book. I. Christ Himself stands or falls with the Book of Jonah. This is evident from the fact that He singles out the partic- ular point of greatest difficulty in the Book as the pivotal sign of the genuineness of His claims, and applies to it His own Almighty stamp of authority. In other words, He stakes His Divinity upon the miracle of Jonah's being swal- lowed and restored by the fish. So that if the Miracle is false, Christ is. Three times our Lord refers to Jonah in the Gospels, and each time with a singular distinctness. In Matt. XII 139 we read, "Then certain of the Scribes and Pharisees an- swered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee — credentials of Thy Messiahship and Heavenly Commission!" "But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulter- ous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judg- ment with this generation and shall condemn it ; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here." "Plow are we to explain," says an acute and trenchant writer, "how are we to explain and interpret this language of our Lord in His references to Jonah and to the facts of his history? He calls him Jonah the prophet. He speaks of his confinement in the belly of the fish as a sign ( to dr/jusiov ) a real miracle like His own death and burial. He says he preached in Nineveh. He says, the people re- pented, and that their repentance would, on the judgment day, condemn the impenitence of the people to whom He Himself was preaching. He says, "Behold, a Greater than Jonah is here." What way is there of evading the plain and ordinary meaning of such expressions? What way of pre- venting, therefore, a direct collision on these points between THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 123 the so called higher criticism and the authority of Jesus Christ? Those critics who in explaining this book relegate to the regions of fable, dream or moral fiction, whatever to their natural reason seems improbable, whatever they think ought not to have happened, whether it happened or not, are they not really, however they may mean it, attempting to sap the very foundations of Christianity ? See, for a moment, how these critics put the matter. "Can we believe," say they, "that the foundations of a super- natural religion, of a religion taking hold of eternity, can be made to rest upon the absolute historical accuracy of cer- tain alleged material facts? upon facts often trivial, upon facts even preposterous and in which the sharp and merry wits of men have found only what is grotesque and un- worthy of God? Shall we believe that a spiritual religion, a religion dealing with the invisible, a religion involving high immortal principles, a religion of holiness, of love, and of internal consciousness can be made to depend, for all that it is, on such trifles, such facts — or rather such fancies — as these?" This kind of language sounds specious enough, but who cannot see how far away it is from the point? There is, indeed, no question as to the principles of religion. They are of necessity unchangeable and eternal — as high above the facts of history as heaven is above the earth. But then what? We are not saved by principles but by a Person. Principles did not die on the Cross for us, but Jesus Christ, who claims to be the Son of God, did. Who cannot see that, this being so, everything depends, and to the minutest, upon Jesus Christ? If He may be mistaken in His facts, and in a whole continuous chain of them com- pleting an entire chapter of history, thinking, Himself, and asserting that this, that and the other thing occurred, when the story was nothing other or better than fancy and fable and fiction — in fine, "a historical novel" — where is the foundation of our trust? Does it not rest no longer on the Omniscient Son of God, but on an ignorant man and un- wise one? upon a man more credulous, more easily imposed upon than are our sagacious and keen-sighted critics to-day? Or take the only other and darker alternative. If He, not mistaken, but knowing and well aware that there was 124 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. nothing- of historical truth in the story, deliberately tells it as true, where again is the foundation of our trust? Does it not rest upon an Imposter, a liar, i. e., a deliberate Fraud? The thing then touches Christ. It vitally touches His honesty, His truthfulness, His foresight, His omniscience, His wisdom, His Godhead. // Jonah falls, Christ falls. If Christ falls, Christianity falls. "If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?" II. Not only so, not only does Christ Himself stand or fall with the Book of Jonah, but Jonah, in his person and experience, is a singular and Divinely inspired illustra- tion of the whole scheme of redemption involved in the Doctrines of Grace. The Miracle itself, in Jonah, is not that which distin- guishes it as a Book from all others. It is rather the amount and the kind of the miracle. Other Books contain miracles, but this one, from beginning to end, is a continuous succes- sion of surprises, providences, miracles and marvels of the most unusual description. What is more significant still, is that these marvels — while they appear not necessary to the practical accomplishment of the object in hand — which is to send a man to perform an errand in Nineveh — are, as we closely look at them, found to be, First — Tremendous proofs of a Divine commission and working. To this very day, the entire coast of the Levant from Egypt to Constantinople — including the Grecian Archi- pelago— abounds with legends, such as the rescue of Andro- meda from a sea monster, by Perseus near the rock still pointed out at Joppa. The fable of Hercules swallowed and cast up alive, after three days, by a fish, while laboring to save Hesione the daughter of Laomedon, the King of Troy, and called, for that exploit 'HpaxXiji Tpitdnepos, Hercules of the three nights. The fable of Aia saved from the Dragon or Sea Serpent at Beirut by St. George, together with the emphasis put by all the Mohammedan world on the story of Jonah which occupies the tenth chapter of the Koran, and especially upon the prayer of Jonah, which the Mohamme- dans regard as one of the holiest of all their prayers and frequently use in their devotions. This, together with the constant recurrence of the pic- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 125 ture of Oannes or the Fish-man on the sculptures unearthed at Nineveh, and the Assyrian tradition that this Fish-man was sent to the region of the Euphrates and Tigris to teach the people the knowledge and the fear of God — that he came up from the sea and spake with man's voice the oracles of the Almighty, — ■ This congeries of myths and legends, evidently suggest- ed by the life and work of Jonah and the impressions left by it, gives grand and solemn confirmation to the fact that God used him in an overwhelming revelation of Himself. But, Secondly — Not only did God stamp Himself — His Per- sonality, on the whole heathen world — as by no other agency before the coming of the Lord — by Jonah, but He gave, in Jonah, a complete theology in object lessons — including the depravity and lost condition of man ; his salvation by a substitute: the sovereignity of God in this work — the power of an irresistible grace, and the final preservation of all who put their trust in Him. Let us note in detail. The depravity, or the lost condition of man. Jonah is, no doubt, a child of God, but the "flesh" is in Jonah and that flesh is as bad in him as in any man. In the first chapter, we have the working of the flesh in apostasy — we have Adam and Eve represented, after the fall, in the garden. "And Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord — " "and Adam and his wife hid themselves in the trees of the garden." The essence of all the depravity there is in the world is in fleeing from God — in refusing like Cain, to listen. In doing one's own wilful will and becoming a wanderer. All sins — all recklessness — all falseness — all spiritual indifference and slumber — all sleeping in the stupor of sin are included in one definition — "Fleeing from God — without God and without hope in the world." Jonah was disobedient. God commanded him and he disobeyed God. Jonah was self-willed. He found a ship going to Tarshish. He found it himself. God did not find it for him. It was his own thought — his own project. "God," it is said, "made man upright, but they have found out the knowledge of evil inventions." Jonah was reckless. Having found the ship, "he paid the fare thereof." He said to himself — "Let alone ! I will do it, whatever the cost." How many 126 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. a man has thus said — "I will have it, or her — I will have my own way, if it damns me !" Jonah deceived the sailors when he paid the fare. His whole life from that moment was a lie; his position, toward God and man, a false one with only one end to it. When Jonah thought of that he ignored it. He sank down in a stupor. He went down into the ship's hold and courted the oblivion of sleep. Vivid type he is of the indifferent un- awaked sinner — "dead in trespasses and sins." But again : The ship's company is saved by one flung overboard and sacrificed for many. Here is a change and Jonah takes a new relation, that of a substitute. He becomes the type of our Saviour, both in death and resurrection. The mariners cry to their gods ; they apply to their home- made religion. They cast forth their cargo into the sea. This is like the sinner in a tempest of conviction reforming himself and throwing sin overboard. Not only so but the sailors make strenuous efforts. They do their best to save themselves. They "row hard" to bring their storm tossed ship to land. They toil to the uttermost in their rowing. No use ! They cannot save themselves nor help to save themselves. Jonah must die for them. Another must save them. The grand exchange and substitution is accom- plished. Jonah sinks into the belly of hell and the whole ship's company are delivered. Then, once more : Jonah, in the belly of hell, sees him- self lost and puts himself at the disposal of God. He learns the Pauline theology in a strange college. Down in the whale's belly he became convinced that it would not be his choice but God's choice that would save him. If God saw fit to leave him, he was gone. Jonah here changes again ; takes the lost sinner's place and lays himself at the foot of God's sovereignty. Salvation is not of Jonah. He sees this, and when he thoroughly sees it, God says to the whale, "Now vomit him up." Jonah is lost as he is in the belly of hell. Salvation is of the Lord. Then again: Salvation is by irresistible influence. God moves on the whale to cast Jonah up. Some say, "It was THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 127 not a whale." They say there are no whales in the Mede- terranean. This is untrue. We saw, my wife and T, the skeleton of a whale, more than fifty feet long, at Beirut. The missionaries told us the waves had washed it up on the sands. If God could make so wonderful a thing as a Jonah, He could make so wonderful a tiling as a fish big enough to swallow him — the Scriptures no where say it was a whale — and if He could do that, He could move that fish, afterward, to throw Jonah up. God not only moved on the fish, but He moved on the Ninevites. All the preaching in the world in such a case would have amounted to nothing. A man traveling along the streets of New York and crying out : "This city is doom- ed !" would draw no attention, save as eccentric, save as a fanatic. God moved Nineveh and moved on separate indi- viduals from the King down. He turned them as the rivers of water are turned; He made them willing in the day of His power. Once more, God taught in Jonah the eternal preservation of His own. He preserved Jonah even though a whale swal- lowed him. He will preserve the soul that trusts in Him, even though the perils of hell are around him — though the jaws of the dragon have seemed to swallow him up. He will preserve the Church within the ribs of His eternal covenant as He did Jonah within the ribs of the great fish and as He did Noah within the timbers of the Ark. He will preserve the Hebrew race. Even though they seem to go down amid the waves of turbulent tumultuating nations and to be lost beneath the sea of history, yet — in their twelve tribes, intact — they shall emerge. They shall be cast up and out again upon the shores of their own land, and Palestine re-peopled shall fulfil the wonderful predictions, not only hinted at in Jonah, but affirmed, with one consent, by all God's prophets. Not only is Jonah thus indissolubly interwoven with the Gospels in its type of Christ, and with the Epistles of the New Testament in its doctrines ; but it is also indissolubly interwoven with the x\cts of the Apostles — as being the great Missionary Book of the Old Testament, spreading its Evangel, as it does, from Tarshish in Spain to the banks of 128 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Indus ; and with theApocalypse as pointing to the conver- sion of both Jew and Gentile in a world reclaimed to God — portraved in all the glowing scenes of the millennium to come. But III. The practical and experimental in the Christian life are equally conspicuous in this extraordinary book. "It displeased Jonah exceedingly" — well now look at it. This Mission, first, was an opposition to Jonah's national prejudices. Nothing is so strong as prejudice — or perhaps as race or religious prejudice. Here both were combined. Israel was to be rejected. She was to be carried into cap- tivity by this very Nineveh ; a thought insupportable to a patriotic and God fearing Israelite — and yet to this idolatrous Nineveh — on a mission of blessing — was Jonah sent. Then again : God seemed to falsify Jonah's message. He did not falsify it — for the Nineveh Jonah went to was destroyed — i. e., it was made another and a converted and God-fearing city. It was not a God-fearing city that God would or could destroy. Moreover, the threat was conditional and Jonah knew it to be conditional. He knew he was not sent to Nineveh to ruin Nineveh but to save her. "This was my saying," he complains — "when I was in my own country — I knew how it would turn out." Poor Jonah was only a man. He was jealous with a needless jealousy for the honor of God. His country was in danger from this Assyrian power which he had hoped, in spite of hope, was now to be utterly humbled. Above all, his own reputation as a prophet was touched — and we none of us know how far the personal enters into our judgments, to warp us. Jonah had hoped while Justice drew the glitter- ing sword ; but when mercy sheathed it, and perils thronged the vision of his future, Jonah broke down. He became — for the time — a pessimist. The age was out of joint. The world rushes to chaos. "Everything goes against me," cries Jonah. "Everybody is against me ; God himself exposes me to disgrace and disregards my feelings." That is Jonah under the gourd. Very sad is all this upon the prophet's part, but not so very exceptional. Have you and I my brethren never been THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 129 displeased and disconcerted by the course things were tak- ing? Have we never spoken a peevish murmuring word — have we never offered an unbelieving prayer. Have we never seemed to arrive at the bitter end of it when we could not any longer understand God? Or have we never been tempted to think our way would have been better. Have we never tried to mend God's ways, to rectify His provi- dence, to turn the course of things this way or that — after it was manifest that the Great Supreme Ruler had chosen that way and not this? If so, then we have been Jonah. Above all — and here I hope I come nearer, more com- fortingly nearer to your experience — have you, amid the reverses and thwartings of life, amid the sighings and the frettings of a wounded spirit — not wilfully rebellious nor consciously revolting against God — have you, with all His children under grievous and not joyous discipline, betaken yourself to the universal curative of prayer? Have you talked with Him about it as Jonah did until the heat and vehemence of your passion died away and in sweet broken- hearted contrition you were willing to justify God and even to sit down and write out the story of your sin, without one word of apology for yourself and so leave God right, and yourself forever in the wrong — but filled with an un- utterable peace that passes understanding? Then, again, you have been Jonah. Then you have found submission to God and trust in God the dearest of all earthly portions and can say — "He chose this path for me ; No feeble chance, nor hard, relentless fate, But love, His love, hath placed the footsteps here ; He knew the way was rough and desolate, Knew how my heart would often sink with fear, Yet tenderly He whispered, 'Child, I see This path is best for thee.' " "He chose this path for me ; Though well He knew sharp thorns would tear my feet, Knew how the troubles would obstruct the way, Knew all the hidden dangers I would meet, 130 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Knew how my faith would falter day by day, And still the whisper echoed, 'Yes, I see This path is best for thee.' " "He chose this path for me; E'en while He knew the fearful midnight gloom My timid, shrinking soul must travel through ; How towering rocks would oft before me loom, And phantoms grim would meet the frightened view ; Still comes the whisper, 'My beloved, I see This path is best for thee.' " "He chose this path for me ; What need I more? This sweeter truth to know? That all along these strange, bewildering ways, O'er rocky steeps, and where dark rivers flow, His loving arms shall bear me all my days ; A few steps more, and I myself shall see This path was best for me." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 131 DIFFICULTIES IN THE BIBLE, WORDS FOR THE UNSETTLED IN SOUL. "Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel : is not my way equal ? Are not your ways unequal." — Ezek. xviii :25. Two principles which we must take with us and always employ in the study of Scripture are these : 1. Direct assertions cannot be invalidated by indirections; the Indicative by a Subjunctive ; the positive by an "if." 2. A mystery is not a contradiction. A mystery is a fact which we cannot explain. A contradiction is no fact ; it is a statement involving one or more falsehoods ; it is a prop- osition which neutralizes and explodes itself. The sinner's position is that God's ways are unequal. This is his excuse, or one of his chief excuses, for disobeying God. He brings forward many supposed self-contradictions in the Bible. I purpose to take up some of these and handle them, as specimens of others, in a very simple and straightforward way. Not that I can, in a short sermon elaborate a complete justification of God ; that is a work too broad for any sermon and too broad for man. It is the work of the Supreme and Christ-revealing Spirit. My work is narrow and special : by the Spirit's gracious help, to start the sinner from behind his barricades ; to let in daylight and make him think. What, then, are some of his difficulties if not alleged contradictions? I. The Bible represents God as omnipotent, and yet as- serts there are some things which God cannot do. If God is omnipotent, why does he not abolish hell? Replv 1 st. — Omnipotence does not mean that God can do everything, but everything that does not involve a self- contradiction — everything that is an object of power. That 132 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. a thing should be and not be at the same moment ; that a circle at the same time should be a square ; that a creature should be infinite, or a human body everywhere, are self- contradictions, absurdities, and not objects of power. Reply 2d. — Omnipotence does not mean that God can do the morally impossible. A man has power to commit suicide — that is, he can take a razor and draw it across his throat. Any man can do that ; physically he has the power. But a good man cannot commit suicide. So a holy God cannot deny Himself — cannot lie — cannot make another God, for these things would be to array Himself against Himself ; to commit suicide ; to destroy His own perfection. Reply 3d. — Omnipotence does not mean that God can thwart his own attributes or frustrate His own purposes ; that He can do anything contrary to His own Being, char- acter or glory. The omnipotence of God is not what some men picture it, a reckless and irresponsible Almightiness let loose like a wild beast to run careering through the universe. God's omnipotence is a locomotive that runs on straight lines. It is infinite power guided by and under the control of infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite truth. God, though omnipotent, cannot abolish hell. Why? Because His wisdom sees that hell must exist. His justice demands it, and His word is pledged for it. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wicked shall be turned into hell." Physically, God can do anything that is an object of power. Morally, God can do nothing inconsistent with His own perfection. That is the Bible representation of omnipo- tence all the way through, and in that representation there is not the hint or shadow of a contradiction. II. The Bible represents God as loving the world, and as saving the world, and as willing that no man should perish ; and yet the same Bible teaches that many are lost, that a remnant are saved, and that "the election hath obtained it while the rest were blinded." Replv. — There is a difference between God's love of benevolence and God's love of relationship and union. I mav have a true love for my neighbors, but I have but one wife. I may love my neighbor's children, but I have a special regard for my own. With a love of benevolence God THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 133 loves the whole world. Yes, He has a greater love for this world than for any other, and for this race than for any other. My brother, my sister, whoever you are, you belong to the race that God pre-eminently loves ; to the race that Jesus died for, and to the race that the Holy Spirit is gathering home to His bosom. But let us look at the texts that are quoted as pertinent here and read them in the full and exact breadth of their meaning. John iii:i6: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" — for what purpose? To save in- dividuals— "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." John iii :ij : "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him might be saved." Does that text teach Universalism ? It does not. It cannot be tortured to teach it. It only teaches that it was not God's intention to perform a work of condemna- tion down here, but a work of salvation. The contrast is between these two things. The mission was not to condemn, but to save. 2. Peter iii :g : "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Here the willing spoken of is not active, but passive. The teaching is not that God has willed, actually determined, that not a man shall perish ; but the teaching is that God has no desire that any man should perish. If he perishes he perishes of his own self-motion. He gets no push downward from God. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but that the wicked turn from his way and live ; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel." God in Ezekiel declares that He takes no pleasure in the death of any man ; that he will have nothing to do with it ; that if men go to work and destroy themselves they alone must bear the blame and the responsibility. God wills against no man. On the contrary, he has a goodwill toward all. But this is not necessarily an effective will. I may think a great deal of a man and yet not choose him for my partner or make him my legatee. God loves the world, but He has chosen His people out of the world. God is 134 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. the Saviour of all men, in a temporal way, in a conditional way, but especially is He "the Saviour of them that be- lieve,"— i Tim. iv:io. God wills the salvation of our race. He has given a Gospel for all men. He would have us preach it to all men; but this the will of Him that sent Me, the will within the will, "that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting- life." Now there is not the hint nor shadow of a contradiction in these two representations. The waters of the Nile belong in a sense to the whole Land of Egypt, but they are ef- fectively, constantly and productively applied to the Delta. So with the love of God. It flows over all men ; it flows effectively, eternally, productively into the hearts of His people. III. The Bible represents God as holy, and yet guilty of the grossest injustice in punishing us for Adam's sin. Reply. — God does not do this. God punishes no man for Adam's sin, but for his own sin. In the Bible there is no such representation as this : that God sits upon the throne of judgment and takes men to task for Adam's sin. You cannot find such a representation between the two lids of the Bible. On the contrary, if any sinner can show that he is righteous, that he himself has never sinned, he will never hear anything about Adam. "Yet ye say, why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live." — Ezek. xviii:i9. If you can square yourself to that text, my brother; if you can show that you have kept all God's statutes ; if you can show that you have never had any complicity with Adam in the affair of sin, you have nothing to fear about Adam. Just you get up and show your im- maculate purity to God and to the universe, and it will be enough. But it was unjust to make Adam our federal head. Reply ist. — The federal or representative principle runs through the universe. One generation commits another in spite of itself. Our fathers erected the Republic and made THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 135 us Americans. We cannot help ourselves. They committed us to a republic. We are born republicans by their act, and not monarchists. Reply 2d. The race must have either stood in a full grown man, with a full-orbed intellect, or stood as babies, each entering his probation in the twilight of self-consciousness, each deciding his destiny before his eyes were half -opened to what it all meant. How much better would that have been? How much more just? But could it not have been some other way? There was no other way. It was either the baby or it was the perfect, well-equipped, all-calculating man— the man who saw and comprehended everything. That man was Adam. He was not deceived. The Scripture says he was not. He knew just what he was about. He did what he did deliberately. Deliberately he wrecked himself and us. Deliberately he murdered his eternal generations. Deliberately he jumped the precipice. Like many another who has loved "not wisely but too well," he would not lose his Eve. He chose her rather than God. He determined he would have her if he went to hell with her. Reply 3d. If we had not fallen by one man, we could not have been saved by One Man. If we are lost by consent- ing to Adam, we shall be saved by consenting to Christ. Where is the injustice or the unholiness in all this? Where is the hint or shadow of a contradiction. IV. The Bible represents God as love, and yet as the author of the most cruel actions. He commanded the Jews to exterminate the Canaanites, and He was so vindictive as to torture and to kill His own Son. Reply 1 st. — God was not cruel in the extermination of the Canaanites unless all sentence against crime is cruel. Turn back and read. You will find that those Canaanites were the Borgias and the Cencis of their time. Their sins were too horrible for description. They were sins that cause the tongue to cleave to the roof of the mouth. They were sins which were eating society through and through like a cancer which must be cut out. God had a right to cut out that cancer. God had the same right to destroy the Canaan- ites that he had to destroy the Antediluvians or Sodom. Again, God had a perfect right to select what executioners 136 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. He pleased. He selected the Jews. He guarded against any personal feeling on their part by making their function strictly official. He raised the whole transaction to the platform, and the dignity, and the solemnity of law. And how else could God have met this case more wisely or more holily, or how could He have stamped more deeply or more widely on the Jews and on the world at large the salutary sense of His justice? Reply 2d. — The answer in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ is so easy and obvious that nothing but a wilfully and awfully perverse mind could have missed it. It was not a vindictive and blood-thirsty spirit in God which led Him to seek the death of His Son as a substitute. God's justice must punish sin. That is an eternal must in God. To find fault with it is to find fault — shall I say with the nature of things? I must go higher, and say with the nature of God. What would a God be without justice, and what would a justice be that did not punish sin. Beside this the universe demanded the punishment of sin. When I was a boy the entire population of Western New York was shocked by the murder of the Van Nest family. I shall never forget the impression. In the dark night, a negro knocked at the door of a farmer's house upon the margin of Owasco Lake. The wife and mother who came to the door was felled by a blow of a bludgeon. The mur- derer went through the house and put each member of the family to death. He cut their throats or stunned them, and then killed them. When the outrage was known the whole community was up in arms. It was all that the police could do to keep men from lynching that negro. Not only was the law against him, but the public sentiment, with its ten thou- sand tongues, which echoed and confirmed it. So in the case of the Atonement. The universe, as well as God, demands satisfaction. Let it be seen that God does not intend to punish sin — that He is going to let the brigands and assassins of his moral government run loose — and, up and out from every holy conscience there will come a cry for blood — a cry which gathering volume and momentum as it rolls, will fill creation with anarchic and incessant thunders. God knew that it was unsafe, as well as impossible, to for- give sin without a satisfaction. For this reason it was that THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 137 "He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," for us who believe. Where in all this is there any ele- ment of cruelty. Where is there any invalidation of love? Why, "herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." Not the hint or the shadow of a contradiction is there here. V. The Bible says that Christ died for all men, and yet again it says that He died for only a part. Reply 1. — The Bible represents that Christ died for this world and no other — for mankind as a race, and not angels. Reply 2d. — The Bible represents that Christ died for all men to secure for them temporal blessings. Without the Cross as a breakwater, death would at once surge over and swamp all our millions. Reply 3d. — The Bible represents that Christ purchases the Holy Spirit in His ordinary influences for all men, and the Gospel for masses and nations. Reply 4th. — The Bible represents that Christ died for all men provided they unll accept. In this sense no man per- ishes for lack of an atonement. If he perishes he perishes for lack of trusting, not for lack of Christ. Now right along inside of these representations the Bible constantly affirms that Christ died savingly and efficiently for His people, His Church, His sheep ; and that He is the Saviour of His body, and that His atonement and His in- tercession are not for the world, but as He Himself says, "I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." But in John i -.29 He is called "the Lamb of God that tak- eth away the sin of the world." Yes, and so He is — the Sin- Taker for the world, if they will have Him. In John xii 132 it is said: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me. Reply. — The word "men" is not in the original ; it is an interpolation. The true translation is, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all mine to me." I. Tim. ii :6, "Who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." Precisely — who the "all" are will be testified in due time, by the call of the Spirit, when the books shall be opened. 138 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Heb. ii :g, "He tasted death for every man." Reply. — The word "man" is not in the Greek; it is an interpolation. The true translation must be gathered from the context. The Apostle is speaking of the Eternal Son saving the sons. He goes on, therefore, to say: "He tasted death for every one of them; for it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect." The true doctrine of the Atonement is that Christ is offered to all men ; that he dies in the midst of men as a substitute ; that he dies for His people ; and that all who hear His Gospel and trust in Him are His people, and are from that instant eternally saved. Now what hint or shadow, or faintest trace of contradiction is there here? VI. The Bible says that the believer is everlastingly saved, and yet that he can fall from grace. Reply. — The Bible does not say that he can fall out of grace, if it did God would deny himself, there would be a flat contradiction and we should be puzzled indeed what to reply. What the Bible does say is that the Galatians under their Judaizing teachers had abandoned the ground of free justification on which they had stood. In taking up the old principle of circumcision they had dropped upon a lower platform and fallen back from the principle of grace. That is what the Bible says. That is exactly what it says. Wrest, and twist, and torture the Greek as you please, you can make nothing else of it. Reply 2. — The Bible statements about everlasting life are positive, and positive assertions cannot be shaken by any mere hypotheses. In John x:26, our Saviour directly and explicitly asserts this doctrine. "Ye believe not," He says, "because ye are not of my sheep." That is going to the root of the matter. But who are the sheep? "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish (literally they shall never be able to destroy themselves ; to vitiate the grace that is in them), neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand ; and even if this could be," He goes on to say, "If any could pluck them out of my hand, there is a hand out- side of mine; My Father which gave them Me is greater THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 139 than all : and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand, / and My Father, as to this eternal covenant, arc one" But does not the Apostle say in Heb. vi -.4, "It is impos- sible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ; if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance?" Reply 1st. — This is a mere hypothesis, "If they shall fall away," "if," — the graceless will fall away, but God provides for the "if" in the case of His true people as He says in Ps. xxxvii:3i, "None of their steps shall slide." Reply 2d. — The text taken absolutely asserts the im- possibility of any renewal at all. So that if it means to say a man can fall from actual grace, it means to say he cannot be renewed again. According to such an interpretation there is no hope for any backslider. Once fallen, he is doomed ; it is hopeless to preach to him. Reply 3dj — The text says nothing about actual grace but only about certain hopeful but delusive signs of it. A man may be "enlightened" as to the doctrine; he may "taste of the hcaz'cnly gift" — that is, have some speculative superficial knowledge of, and fancied love for Christ — a thing very different from "eating His flesh and drinking His blood by a true and internal reception of Him ; again he may be a "partaker of the Holy Ghost" in His common, external and even powerful influences — as many a man has been greatly moved and even brought to a profession of faith in a time of revival ; again he may go further and "taste the good rvord of God" and "anon with joy receive it, all the while, having no life in himself ; he may even proceed so far as to show great gifts and "work miracles" like Judas by the "poivers of the world to come." All this may be true of him and yet he may afterward wilfully and knowingly and deliberately deny and reject the Lord Jesus Christ and com- mit the unpardonable sin from which there is no renewal. It is no common backsliding, no fall like that of Peter which is here intended, but it is such an apostacy as that of the man who once knowing and professing the truth, deliber- HO THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. ately and in the face of full light denies rejects and op- poses it, trampling- the Blood of Christ beneath his feet — "crucifying to himself the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame." The persons spoken of, then, are not, were not, and never will be in grace, for nothing is more certain than that a man may share all the external things spoken of and yet be a stranger to the reality of religion. Reply 4th. — The apostle explains himself when he adds that, though thus solemnly warning them, he is "persuaded better things of them and things which, ixopeva. have in them or involve salvation," as the things before men- tioned do not. Again, he says that those of whom he has been speaking are fruitless persons, earth which bears thorns and briars and so is rejected, and is nigh unto curs- ing whose end is to be burned." In contrast with this, those to whom he writes are commended for their work and labor of love which God is not unrighteous to forget. Reply 5th. — The doctrine (see verses 16 to 20), is that men fall not from grace but from the lack of it. That true grace can never fail because of two immutable things, — 1st, the Promise of God to keep His people, and 2d, His Oath in which it is impossible for God to lie, or prove false to those who have fled to and found refuge in His word of His promise on which He has caused us to hope. But does not St. Paul say in I Cor. iv 127, "Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway?" Reply 1st. — The word adokimos, translated "castaway," means "disapproved of; cast aside." It refers to the Apos- tle's official position. If unfaithful he would be set aside. The Lord would not use him for conversions any more. Reply 2d. — The Apostle says, "Lest having preached to others, I myself," &c. Many preach to others who are lost. The Apostle might perhaps compare his case with theirs. To imagine this is to distort and falsify the language, but even then what St. Paul never said and could not say was this, "Lest being born again I should be lost." Objection. — If this be so, why does the Saviour say in John ¥111:31, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 141 disciples, indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free?" Again, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." Reply. — As to the continuing. The context shows that these people were not His disciples at all. They did not "know the truth." They had not been made free. We are talking- about true Christians falling from grace. The text therefore, is irrelevant. As to the enduring. God saves men through the will, and therefore He exhorts them. First He works in them to will, and after that they are able to will, and must will, and must be stirred up to it. Hence while salvation as a matter of fact is assured, we are all through the Bible addressed in such a way as makes us feel our personal responsibility. Thus in I. John, ii 127 we have the positive assertion "Ye shall abide in Him ;" but this is followed in the next sen- tence by the exhortation, "And nozu abide in Him !" That is, "God's will is for you ; let your wills work with God's. You are saved ; therefore walk as saved men, not presump- tiously, but cautiously, and in the fear of God." Objection. — "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." Reply. — I, a saved soul, may act in such a wav as tends to the destruction of another saved soul. God will prevent the catastrophe. He is pledged to prevent it; but I am guilty all the same, and I must be made to feel that. Here is the place for exhortation, for warning, for reproof. I am talked to as if I did the whole thing; for while God saves us he does it not by destroying our re- sponsibility, rather by emphasizine and enlarging it. Is there a hint or shadow of a contradiction in all this ? Mys- tery, at every point, we admit; but we deny contradiction. VII. The Bible says that men can come to Christ, and it says in the most unequivocal terms (John vi 144) that they cannot. Reply 1st. — The Bible nowhere savs that the natural man, unaided and undrawn, can come to Christ. In all the Scrip- ture there is not one indicative assertion of free-will. All invitations are "if," "if," "if." These assert no ability. To tell a man that he mav have a book if he pays $5 is not to give him $5. It is only saying he may have it "if." 142 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Reply 2d. — "If thou wilt" shows us the difference between the Lazv and the Gospel. The Law says, "Do it ;" the Gos- pel, "I will do it for you." The Law says, "If;" the Gospel says, "It is done." The Old Testament set before us a re- quirement and a reward, with a chasm between them ; the Gospel fills the chasm — it fills it with Christ and His cross. Reply 3d. — "If thou wilt" teaches us what we ought to do in order to convince us how helpless we are. The object of the if is by showing what we ought to do and cannot do, to raise the question, How are we to do it? This brings in Christ. Reply 4. — While we cannot come to Christ unaided, we can come helped by the Holy Spirit; and if we simply lean upon His help, we cannot miss the mark. The point of the thing is something like this. A father has a conceited son. The boy has an immense notion of his own ability. "Very well," says the father, "Roll that stone up the hill yonder." The boy puts his shoulder to the stone and finds he cannot start it. "Roll it up the hill," says the father, "and I will give you a $10 bill." The boy tugs, and tugs, and tugs until he exhausts himself. "Now, when you are ready to confess that you cannot do it yourself ; when you are ready to look to me to do it for you," says the father, "I will roll the stone up the hill and give you the $10 beside." The boy with his shoulder to the stone is the Law. The boy stand- ing aside, looking to the father to do it and pocketing the $10 bill, is the Gospel, "for what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, has done in the Gospel." — Rom. viii:3- In all this there is no hint, nor shadow, nor trace of contradiction. Now what is the outcome, what the resultant, of our work ? 1. A line of light runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. 2. This line of light bears down upon the unconverted conscience. 3. This line of light, my unconverted brother, fixes your eternal destiny. You are in that spot of light and cannot get out of it. It burns upon you like a sun-glass. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 143 That turns the tables. It is not God whose ways are un- equal, but the sinner whose ways are unequal. I thought so all along. I thought the contradiction was not in the Book, but in the man. Sinner ! you must break down. You must see yourself utterly vile. You must renounce all your own strength, all your own imaginations, and, prostrate in the dust, you must look up and out to Christ for everything. The instant you do that, quick as the lifting of an eyelash, you are saved. My brother, are you willing now to look to Jesus? Does God make you willing? Oh, then, dear brother, you are saved ; you are in grace ; give God the glory ! Almighty God, make Thine eternal truth Thy Spirit's demonstration and resistless power, for Jesus' sake, who sealed it with hls blood. 144 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL. Rom. ix:i6. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." There are but two religions upon earth. One, that which centers in the dogma of Free-Will ; the other that which springs from the Divine Election. O'ne which says, "Sal- vation is of self-movement;" the other, "Salvation is of the Lord!" These two religions are two different systems. One metaphysical, which goes to philosophy for its reasons and argues from consciousness and from the nature of things — this system, brought within the circle and the influence of Christianity, does not refuse the Scripture, but evades those parts of Scripture which it cannot seem to subordinate, and of which it cannot make use. The other system stands on Scripture only, and argues from the truth of revelation — from the scope and details of the Book — from facts which have been witnessed by a competent authority, the Holy Ghost. This system, when brought within the circle and the influence of human argument, does not necessarily re- fuse reason, but subordinates reason, and regards the "If?" of reason, where God speaks, as blasphemy. These two systems in the Church have been called by different names — Augustinianism and Pelagianism ; Calvin- ism and Arminianism ; the Old and New School. With every spiritual crisis, side by side, these rival systems emerge — a bridgeless gulf between them, however names may change. The one system, were it unopposed, would take its point of departure from God, and from him would argue down the lines of sovereignty, of justice and grace. But, con- fronted by the other system, whose starting-point is man and Nature, and the so-called shifting "consciousness," the battle-ground becomes that of the human will and of its freedom — Whether the will, in man. is free in such a sense as makes him practically independent, not of God alone, THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 145 but of himself ; of his own nature, character and personality behind it ; whether the Will, unfettered, is a power of self- betrayal, self-antagonism, self-reverse; something which flies, or may fly, in the man's own face, in spite of him : or, Whether the Will, in man, is but a faculty among the facul- ties, linked to the other faculties, and controlled in move- ment and in bent by the nature and bent of the man ? What is the Will in man? The soul, itself a trinity, has three great primal powers — the Intellect, or power of seeing; the Affections, or power of feeling; and the Will, or power of volition. The Will, then, is the faculty or power of willing. Is it an independent, self-determinating power? — i. e., does the Will stand apart from the other great faculties or powers of the soul, a man within a man, who can reverse the man and fly against the man and split him into segments, as a glass snake breaks in pieces? Or, is the Will connected with the other faculties, as the tail of the serpent is with his body, and that again with his head, so that where the head goes, the whole creature goes, and, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he? First thought, then heart (desire or aversion), and then act. Is it this way, the dog wags the tail? Or, is it the Will, the tail, wags the dog? Is the Will the first and chief thing in the man. or is it the last thing — to be kept subordinate, and in its place beneath the other faculties? — and, is the true philosophy of moral action and its process that of Gen. iii:6: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food" [sense-perception, intelligence], "and a tree to be desired" [affections], "she took and ate thereof" [the will.] The latter we affirm because of the statements of Scrip- ture. But, before coming to these, that we may cut through all vagueness and mystification, straight to the root of the matter, and reach a fair and honest statement of the ques- tion, let us premise a few things by way of clearing the ground. Man is a free agent ; but man has not a free will. Man is, therefore, responsible; yet he is impotent. Upon this 146 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. seeming paradox, but changeless fact, is built the scheme of grace. The man is free, but his will is not free. Liberty or free- dom from coercion is one thing ; ability or power from within is another. All the Reformed Confessions unite on this point. To make it, Luther, in his "De Servo Arbitrio" contends; to make it, Augustine, in his "De Gratia et Arbitrio," con- tends ; to make it, St. Paul, in all his Epistles, contends ; to make it, the whole Bible, from cover to cover, is directed. The Bible everywhere holds man responsible, yet every- where it strips the fallen creature of all spiritual power ; writes death upon him ; shuts him up, like Nicodemus, to new birth — like Lazarus, to resurrection; asserts that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" ; excludes all boasting and gives all the glory to God. This being so, the distinction between free agency and free will assumes vital importance, and calls for emphatic assertion. Man is a free agent because unforced from without ; he does as he pleases, always as he pleases, only as he pleases ; he is therefore responsible. But man has not a free will because he is bound together within — because his judgment moves his desires, and his desires his volitions, just as steam moves the piston and the piston the wheel. While, therefore, man does as he pleases, he pleases and can please only one way. He does as he pleases, but he cannot please against his whole nature — against the unity, tendency, strain of his nature. His nature binds him ; if a fallen nature, downward. This nature he cannot reverse. He cannot renew his own will, change his own heart, nor regenerate his bad nature. While therefore, he is free, so far as forces outside are concerned, his will is not free but is bound by the strain of his nature. It is still "the carnal mind" that will not — the "enmity" that "cannot please God." An illustration occurs from the hand. It is simple, but perhaps may be helpful. A man is free to use his hand. The man is free, but the hand is not free ; the arm and the muscles control it. The hand is the slave of the muscle, and acts as the muscle compels. In like manner, man is free to use his will, and is therefore always a free agent; THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 147 but the will itself is not free. It is controlled by the affec- tions, which are evil and earthly and sensual, and these again are controlled by the understanding and judgment, which call evil good and which are perverted, blinded, de- luded, by the god of this world. Another illustration is in point — Niagara! The water is free. No one is forcing it. No one is taking up bucket- fuls and pouring them over the falls. The water is unforced from without, but it forces itself. Each drop pushes an- other, and so, while Niagara is free and rejoices and leaps in its freedom, the drops are not free, nor can Niagara roll itself backward. Niagara goes down, is bound to go down, and cannot go up. That is how the Bible puts the impotence of fallen man. Free to sin, but free from holiness — helpless toward God, the volume, river, trend and tendency of his nature is down. "As a fountain casteth out her waters," says Jeremiah, "so we cast out our wickedness." "Can a fig tree bear olive berries?" Who can bring a clean thing out of an un- clean? Can free will do it? Can any thing or creature do it? No ! not one. Man will not, because it is not in him to will ; he is stunted, and set in a fallen direction ; and man cannot, because an evil eye affects the heart, and a deceived heart turns him aside, ever aside, from the mark of the prize of God's call- ing. Man's inability is, therefore, total, innate, ineradicable by any self-help or self-motion, by any twisting, effort, or desire of Nature. Man can no more turn to God than the dead can sit up in their coffins. He can no more originate a right desire than he can create a universe. God and God the Holy Ghost alone, by sovereign, special interference, calls dead sinners to life, and "creates within them the de- sires of their hearts" — the first faint fluttering of a breath toward holiness. Such is the representation of the Bondage of the Will, in perfect harmony with Free Agency, which the Bible fur- nishes, and for which we are bound to contend. It is readily granted, however, that such a notion of things would not and could not occur to man of himself. It is as much be- yond his conception as the stars beyond his touch, and 148 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. when revealed, the first effect is to bewilder, dazzle and con- found. It is readily granted that God's thoughts on this sub- ject are higher than our thoughts — that such a notion of things would not and could not occur to the unregenerate consciousness (for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God), but only to the consciousness which has become Christian, and more — not always instantly to that; but slowly and by degrees through the teaching and interpretations of the Spirit. Witness the difference be- tween Whitefield converted suddenly, consciously by force, and the gradual experience of Dr. Scott, the commentator, who began a radical, intense Arminian and ended in a full surrender to the Doctrines of Free Grace. Suppose I have fallen into the water and am blindly struggling and frantically beating with my arms. All my efforts only serve more surely to sink me. I go down — again — the third time. I have lost consciousness. When I come to, I find myself upon the river bank. I look at the water and I say: "Bravo! I have done well. How I must have struggled ! That last stroke did the work and landed me safe on the shore." I say this, but I am not satisfied. A person approaches. He is dripping with water. He says : "You were gone ! I saw you go down the last time, and I dived under and saved you !" I think it over and I say : "That sounds like fact, like common sense ; it seems the only satisfying explanation" ; yet consciousness does not help me. I have no recollection of rescue by force and from outside. I must take it on trust. There are three conditions of the Will. i. That of holiness fixed and confirmed in holiness. That is the will of God, of Christ incarnate, and of the holy angels. Non posse peccare, as Augustine says : "Who can- not sin." 2. That of holiness on trial, unconfirmed, and therefore mutable. That of Lucifer, who fell by vanity; whose eye was caught by self-reflection. That of innocent Adam in Eden. Posse non peccare — Able not to sin, but might. 3. The fallen will. Unholy, free from holiness. Non posse non peccare — "Unable not to sin ; sin's helpless slave." This third condition, of the fallen will, we argue from the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 149 Scripture. And the arguments to which we shall confine ourselves are five. (1.) Direct and plain assertion. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." ''No man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." "Therefore said I unto you that no man can come to Me, except it were given him of my Father." "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profit cth nothing." "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject unto the law of God, neither indeed can be." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "Which were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." "To will is present with me" [*. e., the Faculty of Will], "but how to perform that which is good" [the power] , "I find not." These few texts, taken from hundreds equally peremptory, must suffice for this argument. (2.) The Bondage of the Will is not only positively and plainly asserted in the Scripture, but it is everywhere im- plied. It is implied in regeneration. A man comes into this world passive, without either his own act or consciousness, so does he enter the Kingdom of God. It is either this, or we deny the New Birth, and teach the nonsense of self- procreation. Again: If any man be in Christ, he is a xairij nri6tS (new creation). This carries us right back to the first creation, from nothing, and to the infusion into us of some- thing which was not in us before, but now can never be absent. Call it "Christ in us," or a "seed," or the "spirit born of the Spirit," or call it what you will ; it is a fact that cannot be gainsaid. Creation is an object of power. Again: "You who were dead hath He quickened." Is not resurrection an object of power? Again: Because faith is said to be "the gift of God," and a man takes a gift from outside. Faith is the current of the Divine life, running through the new-born, which is the river of Throne-water, the impetus and energy of God. 150 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. And once more : The description of the work of the Spirit as the interposition and impingement of Omnipo- tence— "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power." (3.) Add to these assertions and implications, illustra- tions; as, for instance, the turning back of water which cannot run up-hill, nor rise above its own level. ''Turn again our captivity as the streams of the South." "All my fresh springs are in Thee." Take again Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones — "very dry" — "no flesh on them." The question is: "Can these bones live?" Free-will says, "Certainly. It is a mockery to say to them, 'Hear the Word of the Lord,' unless they can hear it." But Inspiration answers not so, "Son of man, cry !" "Cry, 'Come from the four winds, O Breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live.' " Ah ! "Lazarus Come Forth !" gives the Free choice to a dead man and unwraps the cerements of Will, as it proclaims the fiat, "Loose him and let him go !" For, if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Ah ! "Stretch forth thy hand !" brings in the miracle of will- ingness to venture, as it does the miracle of power, enabling the soul paralyzed and conscious of its helplessness to cry, Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis! — "Give, only give what Thou commandest, and then command what Thou wilt." These and all miracles proclaim aloud, by physical ex- pression, the momentous moral fact. Can blindness make itself to see? Can deafness unstop its own ears? dumbness its own lips? Can palsy leap and leprosy exude its loath- some virus? Then may the Will work backward, revolu- tionize itself, fling off contagion wandering through our crooked veins, and, tearing from itself the poisoned shirt of Nessus, speak the emancipating edict — "I will! Self, be clean !" (4.) The Scripture doctrine, thus asserted, and implied and illustrated, gathers in the Scope of Revelation. All other doctrines hang upon and confirm it. What is Election but God choosing, because we cannot choose? What is Regeneration but God quickening the dead who cannot stir ? What is Perseverance but God carrying on a work which THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 151 He has begun, where man, beginning must infallibly break down ? (5.) To these arguments from Scripture let us add, and finally, the utter absence of any Scriptural authority for the assertion that the Will is free; or that power must equal obligation, or that any unregenerate man can will aught whatever in the direction of God, or aught what- soever but sin. Surely, if the ground of obligation be ability, we have a right to expect the Scripture to say so. Instead of this it says the other thing, and says it every time, and no- where, in a single instance, contradicts itself. Its uniform refrain, from Genesis to Revelation is — "Every imagina- tion of the thought is evil" — "no man can come to Me ex- cept the Father draw." Free-will can do nothing without special grace and an effectual call. But, do not exhortations and commands take our ability for granted? And when God says "Do a thing," does it not imply that we can? It does not, for 1. Direct assertions cannot be invalidated by mere in- directions— the Indicative by a Subjunctive; the positive by an "if." Saying "Stretch forth thy hand" does not imply, "Paralysis can stretch it." Saying "Ye will not come to Me," does not imply "You can will to come to Me." The fact is just the opposite. The diseased will is the trouble. "Ye cannot will." This is splendidly argued by Luther in his Diatribe against Erasmus. "If thou wilt equal Virgil, my Maevius, thou must sing a more exalted strain. Alas ! Maevius cannot." 2. And again : the dogma "Power equals Obligation" proves too much. I ought to keep the commandments, therefore I can; therefore perfection is possible; there- fore Sisyphus rolls his stone to the top of the mountain ; therefore I can climb a Sinai all aflame, and which not even a beast, stupid as he is, would think to touch. The importance of the doctrine of Inability is thus seen and soleminized from the fact that the whole Bible is di- rected— the strength of the Holy Ghost, if one may so say, gathered up to prove it — to show that man can neither save himself, nor help to do it — can neither turn himself, 152 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. nor help to do it ; that common grace, however it may move on men is not sufficient ; that while men have power downward, they have no power upward ; that a fallen creature can only keep falling; and that if ever men turn to God, it must be by God's turning them, and if ever they are willing, it must be because made willing in the day of sovereign and Almighty power. The importance of the doctrine of Inability is further seen and solemnized from the fact that without it men will never cease their fleshly efforts and their fleshly willings and their fleshly vows, and simply trust on Christ. Sisyphus must quit, and let Another roll that stone. Wordly Wise- man must fly from Sinai to Golgotha. A sense of helplessness, absolute, utter, is the first req- uisite to any sound conversion, and this sense of helpless- ness is nothing more nor less, nor other, than old-fashioned conviction of sin. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 153 THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." — Titus ii:ii, 12. Practical Christianity has for its ground and motive doc- trinal Christianity. It is principle, straight through, that is to sustain men and move men according to God. It is principle, not emotion, not impulse. That is the root- thought of the Epistle to Titus. St. Paul speaks first, in the first chapter, of church order and holiness in the church — then he speaks, in the second chapter, of family order and holiness in the family — then he speaks, in the third chapter, of social order and holiness in our relation to the world. But each of these three phases of conduct is described as the outcome of a great truth clearly known and quietly taken for granted, namely, that of our personal relation to God — a relation which is all that the affections can desire, and which never changes, because it depends entirely and forever upon what God is, whose self-con- sistency is perfect. For the grace of God which bringeth salvation, which comes down from heaven with it, which does not look for righteousness from us but gives it, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. In the exposition of these words, according to the line of apostolic thought, I wish to follow three inquiries: I. What is the Doctrine of Grace? II. How this Doctrine hath appeared unto all men. III. Its practical effect. 154 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. I. What is the Doctrine of Grace? The word grace means favor to the ill-deserving; the doctrine of grace then must mean that system of truth which has for its foundation the ill-desert of sinners before God. Grace is something which must always come in after justice. It is something entirely supplementary to any work of righteousness — something over and above. It is imperative that we should see this, otherwise we can have no proper conception of the plan of redemption. So long as we imagine that God has to deal with innocent creatures or with creatures who have a claim upon Him, who have not already fallen under His justice, we shall be utterly non-plussed and unable to receive the first and simplest propositions of the Gospel. The fact is that, before grace can come in, the bottom must be knocked out from under man, and he must be let down to the moral status of a devil. The level on which we stand, my brethren, is pre- cisely that of fallen spirits. The only difference between unregenerate man and devils is this, that man has a body and devils have not. Man has the nature of Satan — "Ye are of your father the devil." Man is as blind as Satan — "Ye were sometimes darkness." Man is as wilful as Satan — "The lusts of your father ye will do." Man is led and energized by Satan — "The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Lost man is a lost spirit, and God has a right to deal with him as He deals with lost spirits. That is the fundamental proposition of grace. Well, now: How has God dealt with lost spirits? He has condemned them. He has cast them out of His pres- ence. He has doomed them to hell. Let us, in imagination, lift the cover from hell. What do we see there? We see millions of once glorious creatures writhing in torments. We see them committed to a destiny which must grow worse and worse, and which is unchangeable. Forever and forever each single devil must suffer. Not one can ever escape. That is justice. It is the stern and iron reign of law. What do we say of that? How do we feel about it? We say it is right. We acquiesce. I never yet heard any man complain of God, for treating the devils as a criminal THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 155 class. I never yet heard of a man who sat down and wept over devils, because of what they had to suffer. God has punished devils and He is going to punish them. He is going to spend the exhaustless powers of retribution on their immortality — to pour wrath on them to the utter- most. Now, suppose God were to determine to bring in a salva- tion for the devils. He is not going to do it. Their affairs are closed up. Righteousness with them has reached its everlasting finality But. for the sake of illustrating the point before us, let us suppose a salvation for devils. Must it necessarily be for all devils? Why? Why must God save all if He saves any? Why has God no option? Why has He less liberty than I have, when to one of two street beggars I give a dime and to another nothing? If God is free at the first step, why is He not free at each succeeding step? If not, where does He lose His freedom? If He may save or not save, may He not save few or many — one or ten thousand. I would like to sharpen emphasis upon this point. I have no desire to evade it, but rather to pursue it and to corner it — to compel a categorical reply. Is God bound to save everything that sins and suffers? No, for 1 st. He does not do it. Wre see unrelieved suffering all around us. 2. God's justice will not let Him do it. There is an eternal principle in God which must treat sin as sin de- serves. God, then, is free to save or not to save. His will is en- tirely untramelled. Suppose He says, "I will save," still has He power over His own will to determine how many; or else from the moment of becoming a Saviour He un- crowns Himself as a God. In the case before us, God might come down and save certain, we will say, eight devils, while He left the others just where they were. Imagine this and what would be the effect? Why, in the case of the majority they would continue to get what they have been getting — what they were sentenced to, what they deserve. In them God and His justice are glorified. In the case of the others, of the 156 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. eight, the thing done would be supplementary. It would not be necessary ; it would not be expected ; it would not be called for. It would therefore be a simple and unmixed gratuity, and, to those benefited, this gratuity would be the spring and cumulating motive of all possible eternal gratitude and praise. Now this illustration of the devils is the exact fact with reference to fallen man. Our salvation is built upon the condemnation of devils, into which we also have fallen. But in our case, God makes a difference. After the sentence has been pronounced — after the gallows-tree has been erected — after the drop has been sprung, God brings in a new thing — a thing which has entered no thought, which is beyond a creatural imagination, and which circu- lates throughout all heavenly regions and througout all holy and angelic populations an overwhelming, yet blissful, surprise. That thing which God brings in is grace. Eternal grace which contemplates a ruined, guilty, utterly corrupt and helpless sinner — a collapse in sinnership — a synocope of sin. Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the axe of justice — so corrupt that they cannot change their own natures — so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him — so blind that they cannot see Him — so deaf that they cannot hear Him and so dead that He Himself must open their graves and then lift them into resurrection. Grace then is not like justice, a necessary attribute in God. It is an optional attribute, and if optional includes 1st. As its first element an everlasting choice. Suppose there were no choice. Suppose God had precipitated our whole race to death, as He did angels, from the moment that they sinned. God might have done this. It would have been no excess of severity. It would have been jus- tice, only justice still achieving its untarnished if appalling triumphs. But what then? Why then a race drops out — a link, the human is lost to the universe — a whole in- telligent nature made capable of the eternal enjoyment of God comes short of that for which it came into existence. What then? Why then Satan conquers and stalks over the battle-field the undisputed monarch of a subjugated THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 157 world. What then? Why then the law which was given, first of all, not that men should suffer by its penalty, but that God should be glorified by its fulfilment, is never com- plied with. Thus justice, in the destruction of our race would triumph — but in the defeat of all the other per- fections of God. Suppose the opposite — that God had saved all men. What then ? Why then there is the obliteration of justice. To all eternity it can never be made to appear that we did really deserve to die. In spite of the cross we ourselves should doubt it — angels would doubt it. The universe would doubt it. Some men must die to set that doubt at rest. Over the grave of some there must go forth the announce- ment, in terms at once decisive and incontrovertible, that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," and that those who are saved "were by nature the children of wrath even as others." Without this there will be a race of sinners, no individual of whom ever gets his per- sonal ill-deserts, or ever believes that he had any ! With- out this there will be one world afloat among the worlds which flings a jarring discord over all the harp-strings of the heavenly minstrelsy ; which sports in a derisive free- dom ; and which laughs aloud at righteousness. But suppose a third thing. Suppose justice and mercy combined. Suppose that when all deserve condemnation, and all are seen to deserve it, some are saved — a multitude whom no man can number, the vast majority, in the grand total — to the vindication of each several attribute in God ; to the praise of the glory of His grace ! So that each perfection in Him may appear in poise and balance — so that the display of one may not be the adumbration of another — so that He may not seem to hang mid-heaven, obscured, half-hidden, half-eclipsed, the segment of a mutilated sun, but bursting through the clouds, and throw- ing them behind His back into remoter and remoter hori- zons. He may shine forth "A God all o'er consummate, absolute, Full orbed, in His whole round of rays complete." 158 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. In order to this there must be a choice. Election is the Alpha of grace — the first, most humbling, and yet most encouraging manifestation of God. It is the first manifestation, since if we cannot stir, God must. It is a humbling manifestation, since it grasps the golden mace of the Divine Sovereignity, swings it aloft, and brains a man of all his thoughts, imaginations, feelings, efforts — lays him prostrate in the dust, and then stoops down and, writing death upon his members, thus destroys that faith in self which hinders him from resting upon that which is outside of self, the work of Christ for sinners. Election is an encouraging doctrine, since it as a drag-net cast into the water not to drive away fish but to draw them. If I am the lost creature that the Bible says I am, then since I can never choose to set my affections on God, God must choose to set His affections on me. He must come out and down to me in free and overflowing love. He must begin to work upon me. He must create within me the desires of my heart. He must awaken within me a Divine curiosity. He must make me feel my great neces- sity, and draw me on to Christ. He must overcome my hesitations, and allay my apprehensions, and dissipate my fears, and bring me to assured, unchangeable repose upon His faithful promise. Now what is all this but the expansion of the Bible state- ment, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy, not because we are holy, but that we might be holy and without blame before Him. In love having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself." And in all this there is solid comfort and encouragement for every disquieted soul. For since Divine election is im- partial— since it finds in the best of us nothing to attract, and in the basest of us nothing to repel — since it comes to give us everything and to exclude us from nothing; why then the worst of sinners, and the worst sinners of the worst, are quite as likely to be swept within the circle of its mighty and compassionate and conquering consolations, as are those who, in the pretentions of an unimpeachable THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 159 morality, and who, in the kindly judgments of men, stand nearest of all. 2d. The second element in grace is absolute redemption — that Christ dies for the elect part of fallen sinners and for that part alone. This appears — 1. From what has already been said. The salvation brought in through the reconciliation of the Divine attri- butes contemplates a part and a part only. 2. It appears from the consistency of the Holy Trinity with itself. If the Father elects, the Son, in perfect sym- pathy with the Father, cannot enlarge upon that election. 3. It appears from the tenor of the Eternal Covenant — "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto the Beloved my servant, Thy seed will I establish forever." Here the covenant is in so many words confined to the seed. 4. It appears from the absurdity of the opposite. For if Christ died for all alike, then He did no more for those who are saved than for those who perish. And if He died for all alike, then He bore the curse for many who are now bearing the curse for themselves, and He suffered punishment for many who are yet lifting up their own eyes in hell, being in torments, and He paid the redemp- tion price for many who are yet paying in their own eternal anguish the wages of sin, which is death. To say this is of course to convict God of the grossest injustice, for it is to represent Him as receiving from the hands of Christ full atonement, and then as dashing down to per- dition millions of those for whom Christ had died to atone. The story is told of Pizarro that when he had imprisoned the Peruvian Inca, that monarch, lifting his hand to the level of his head upon the wall behind him, promised to fill the apartment with silver and gold to that level, provided Pizarro would let him go free. Pizarro agreed to this, and then when the loyal subjects of the Inca, by denying themselves to the utmost, had brought together the requi- site ransom, Pizarro led forth their beloved Inca, and before their smiling expectant faces put him to excruciating death. That Pizarro, lifted and broadened to infinite proportions, is the shadow which a universal atonement projects upon 160 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. God — it makes an infinite Pizarro and subverts the very substratum upon which is built His throne. 5. That Christ died for His people alone appears from the fact that otherwise there is no real and complete atone- ment. By atonement we understand the work of a sub- stitute. Now, if Christ was the substitute of all men, He failed, for all men are not saved by Him. But if He was the substitute of His people He did not fail, for His people are saved by Him, and we have an atonement which truly atones, a redemption which truly redeems. 6. The doctrine of universality — shall I say the doctrine of a vague atonement — surrenders certainty while seeking' to captivate. Suppose we preach broadly that Christ died for all men and for all alike. The first effect of this preaching, no doubt, will be to brighten men's hopes, to open wide horizons and apparently to bring salvation home to them. But what is the after result? Will not every man, in reflecting, say to himself, "What is this salvation which has been brought home to me? Is it not a benefit com- mon to me with souls already lost? Was it not once theirs as now it is mine? What assurance then can it give me that I, like them, may not be lost? If multitudes have perished for whom Christ has died, why may not I?" In order to certainty then, some other proposition must be brought in — some special, call it narrow interest, if you please, in Christ's death — but something which shall make salvation a fixture and secure upon granitic foundations, that come what may, amid all changes, though mountains be upheaved and hills depart, nothing shall occur to alienate God's loving kindness. 7. Christ died for His people in such a way as to save them, or else He is not the faithful Saviour whom we have known and loved and honored. For my part I would rather, infinitely rather, believe that Christ had never redeemed a single soul than believe that He so cast shame, dishonor and reproach upon His own depthless agonies, and upon the very need of an Atonement, as to lose sight of that soul after having gone through what he did to redeem it. Rather, infinitely rather, would I believe that Christ never loved at all than that having loved unto death He THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 161 had not strength to love all the way through, but failing in the extreme crisis lost what He died for. 3d. The third element in grace is quickening. Is there any such thing as quickening? What does that mean? It means giving life. Can lost man give life to himself? Can nature rise above nature? There is needed, therefore, in addition to the work of the Father, and to the work of the Son, the work of the Spirit. That which is spiritual must be born of the spirit. When we look around us we see four kinds of life — mineral, vegetable, animal, intellectual. These four kinds of life are different. Can they have anything in common? Can they replace one another? Can the rock by volition turn itself into a tree, the tree transmute itself into an ox, the ox make itself into a man? There are those who say they think so. There are those who have brought in what they are pleased to call "Development," expressly to deny, in face of all the facts, that greatest fact of all, "Ye must be born again !" But that which is not and which cannot be in the least, how shall it be in the greatest? That which is not and cannot be in the seen, how shall it be in the unseen? That which is not and cannot be in the temporal, how shall it be in the eternal? As well might Satan will himself into a seraph as fallen man, by efforts of volition, will himself into that new creation which is called a "child of God." The Doctrine of Grace then, is this — that dead nature lies on a dead level. That on this dead level God comes in — that the Father elects, the Son, redeems, the Spirit quickens — and that by resurrection lifted to another level, the new life runs on and on and on forever! The Doctrine of Grace therefore is nothing but the Doctrine of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is nothing but saying, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!" It is nothing but beginning here below the prelude of that new, unspeakable and everlasting song, Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! Lord God Almighty. II. Hoiv has this Doctrine of Grace, which bringeth sal- vation, appeared unto all men ? It has appeared unto all men in the preaching of the Gospel, which is not distinct- ively the setting forth of Divine Sovereignty, nor of a nev; 162 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. and supernatural birth, but is the offer of Jesus Christ to all men, everywhere, of every condition, irrespective of whatever else be true or untrue — certain or uncertain, clear or dark. In the Gospel proper there are "neither claims, nor com- mands, nor duties, nor threatenings." It brings salvation, it does not exact nor demand it. In it there is reported a peace purchased for poor sinners by the blood of Jesus, sufficient in its nature for all — suited to all and free to all who will take it. The Gospel which we get from this book and which we preach is this — For all His people, Jesus Christ stands substitute. They are His people who put their trust in Him. If you trust Him, my brother — if the Spirit draws you, and, what man dare say the Spirit does not draw him? If you consent, for consent is every- thing in religion, you are saved. And how are you saved? Why so saved that if the solid world were split asunder and the graves rent open and the universe itself convulsed — so long as God's throne stands unshaken, and so long as truth is truth and righteousness is righteousness, you are the heir of an eternal life, the crowned possessor of an everlasting glory. The doctrine of grace brings salvation. It tells us that since we can do nothing — nothing whatever, God has done all. That He has gone into the question of our sin and our necessity and sifted it to the bottom — that He has planned largely and effectively for the relief of sinners and the redress of law — that He has righted Himself with Himself — that He has satisfied the claims of justice — that He has satisfied the claims of moral government — that He has satisfied the claims of human conscience, and that He has so settled all things on a new, impregnable, immovable foundation by the Blood of Christ, the smitten Rock of Ages, that those who trust on that foundation cannot be confounded. My unconverted brother, the Gospel is of such a nature that when it says, "The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin," if you consent to that cleansing you are cleansed. The Gospel is of such a nature that when it says, "He brought in everlasting righteousness," if you consent to that righteousness you are righteous. It THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 163 is of such a nature that when it says, "He hath made Him to be sin for us," if you consent to that exchange, to that transfer, Christ becomes your substitute, He is put into your place, and you are put into His place at once — on the spot. The one point in religion, then, in consent. Toward that point God's Providence, God's Word, God's Spirit — all the forces of His moral empire — urge, incite, and draw men. From that point if men recalcitrate — if they say "I won't," they are lost. At that point if men consider — if they give God credit for speaking the truth — if they do Him the honor of venturing on his provision — if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ — in one word, if they consent, they are saved. The one question of our moral destiny is the reception or the non-reception, of the Blood atonement ! Such is the Doctrine of Grace. Such is its presentation. Now, III., and lastly, What is its practical effect? Some say it is too simple. It cannot save because there is not enough to it — a man has nothing to do but believe. Our reply to this is — that simplicity is the ornament of all nobility, and the special grandeur of God. The Gospel is simple, just as Niagara is simple, but capable of bearing on its heaving and mysterious tides each tiny drop that leaps and sparkles there, out, out into the wide Ontario of God's grace, and out again into the measureless Atlantic of His glory. The Gospel is simple only because God be- hind it does that which is hard and leaves to man that which is easy. The Gospel is simple only because it is free from circumlocution, from mystification, and from what we stig- matize in worldly affairs as "red tape." "Oh how unlike the complex works of man Heaven's easy, artless, unincumbered plan ! From ostentation, as from weakness, free, It stands like the cerulean arch we see, Majestic in its own simplicity; While, writ upon its portal, from afar Conspicuous as the brightness of a star, Legible only by the light they give. Stand the soul-quickening words — Believe and Live!" 164 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. But it is said that this doctrine of grace destroys good works — that it pulls down all we have built up, and makes it of no avail that we have prayed and wept and labored. Our reply to this is to confirm it — to admit that the Gospel razes Shinar's Tower of brick and slime to its foundation — that it opens a great gulf beneath our feet, into which it flings all our doings and all our experiences and all our deservings, while it cries over their universal demolition "Babylon the Great is fallen! is fallen! is fallen!" We preach as the special and distinctive glory of the Gospel the obliteration of good works as, in any way, in any sense, essential, confimatory, supplementary, the ground- work of our standing before God. We affirm with boldness that our good zvorks cannot strengthen our salva- tion nor our bad works weaken it — that not in one whit does our salvation depend upon what we commit or omit — upon what we do or fail to do, but only upon this — the reception of Christ. "Of all that wisdom teaches this the drift, That man is dead in sin, and life's a gift." But some say the Doctrine of Grace leads to unholincss. No ! there we stop — that we deny ! The Doctrine of Grace is not built on good works, be- cause it creates them. A man without the indwelling Holy Ghost is dead, but where the Holy Ghost comes and makes him alive, he is alive. How ? By the Holy Ghost. In what direction? Alive unto God. For the grace of God hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying un- godliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right- eously and godly in this present world. The Doctrine of Grace cannot make men unholy — for 1. It has for its object, straight through, the glory of God — but unholiness does not glorify Him. 2. The Doctrine of Grace has for its object to magnify the law and to teach us to magnify it — but unholiness does not magnify the law. 3. The Doctrine of Grace has for its object to make u? new creatures ; but if we are new creatures we are different from what we were before — if therefore we were before unholy, now we become holy. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 165 4. The Doctrine of Grace teaches us to do all things by God's Spirit, but God's Spirit is a holy Spirit ; what we do therefore must be holy. 5. The Doctrine of Grace suspends everything on faith, but faith works by love and purifies the heart, and we are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus. 6. The Doctrine of Grace brings us to a perfect rest in God, but then it is a Sabbath rest — the eternal Sabbath begun — in which there shall be nothing unholy. 7. The Doctrine of Grace gives us Christ, not only as our Priest to sacrifice for us, but our Prophet to teach us and our King to rule us. We must therefore "beware of Him and obey His voice, for God's name is in Him." 8. The Doctrine of Grace bestows everything, and there- fore awakens our gratitude. "We thus judge that if one died for all, then all died, and that He died for all that we who live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him who died for them and rose again." 9. The Doctrine of Grace, so far from abolishing God's law, re-enacts it. It gathers up the Tables broken on Sinai in order to re-cement them and preserve them in the true and living Ark, Christ Jesus, who Himself also has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Upon no men — upon no dispensation have the Ten Commandments been so binding as they are upon us Christians in this dispensa- tion of grace. 10. The Doctrine of Grace is not only a precept, it is a power. "Our Gospel came unto you," says the Apostle, "not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the author of all that is in the saved man. Whatever is not of the Holy Ghost is not of the New "I," — it must therefore be cast out, crucified, reckoned dead. On the other hand — when we say the Holy Ghost is in us — what does that mean? It means that God is in us — working through us — working on and out. A strawberry runner is shot from the parent stem, for what purpose? That it may take root, become a new plant and bring forth fruit. In like manner I am shot forth out 1 66 THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. of God, by the infusion of a divine nature, that I in turn rooted and grounded in Christ, may bring forth fruit unto God. If any man say otherwise — if he say, "Let us therefore continue in sin that grace may abound" — our reply is that of the Apostle — echoed by the consenting voices of re- deemed man in all ages — "whose damnation is just !" Now, unto God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be glory evermore. Amen. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 167 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION TRUE. Acts xiii 48. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." The reason why any one believes in Election is, that he finds it in the Bible. No man could ever imagine such a doctrine — for it is, in itself, contrary to the thinkings and the wishes of the human heart. Every one, at first, opposes the doctrine, and it is only after many struggles, under the working of the Spirit of God, that we are made to receive it. A perfect acquiescence in this doctrine — an absolute lying still, in adoring wonder, at the footstool of God's sovereignty, is the last attainment of the sanctified soul in this life — as it is the beginning of heaven. The reason why any one believes in Election is just this, and only this — that God has made it known. Had the Bible been a counterfeit it never could have contained the Doc- trine of Election, for men are too averse to such a thought to give it expression much more to give it prominence. The Bible not only teaches the doctrine, but makes it prominent — so prominent that you can only get rid of Elec- tion by getting rid of the Bible. It is the Bible part that is the great difficulty. It is not what believers say, nor what a sound philosophy teaches, but it is what the Scriptures say, that confronts us. No propositions ever laid down by the pulpit are so difficult to receive as is the inspired language itself. This will explain the great dislike of certain passages of Scripture which allude to this topic. Men pass them by — they turn from them — they are angry if they hear them quoted even without a comment. They do their best to twist them from their plain sense — to explain away their meaning and yet, after all their explanations, they do not like to hear them or to read them. They feel that their one- sided and disingenuous dealings cannot bear the light of God. The Bible makes Election prominent. It puts Election basal to the entire scheme of grace. It makes it the Supreme law — the underlying principle of the Gospel — that, in har- 168 THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. mony with which, all things else have their being and that which if it should fail, the universe would be a ruin. If this be so — if the Doctrine of Election is in the Bible, then we shall have, either to give up the Bible, or receive the Doctrine. If the Doctrine is in the Bible, then, since we do not in- tend to give up the Bible, we must receive it. Election means choice and "to elect" means to choose, and the Doctrine of Election is the absolute choice of those who are to be saved, from eternity. Bear with me then I pray you while we consider. I. The Doctrine of Election as it runs through the Bible. II. The Doctrine in this particular text. III. The Doctrine as held by the Church. IV. The Meaning of the Doctrine. V. Its practical Value, and I. The Doctrine of Election as it runs through the Bible. I prefer to begin with a whole volley of texts, — i. e.. to avalanche you with an irresistible pressure of testimonies of the Holy Spirit, and, afterward, to close to a more logical and special presentation of my theme. If then we turn to the Old Testament we shall read in Deut. y-.y, "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you." In Neh. 9:7 we go back of this, "Thou art the Lord, the God, who didst choose Abram and gavest him the name Abraham." In I Chron. 28:4, we have David — "The Lord God of Israel chose me." In I Chron. 29:1, he says, "Solomon my son whom God hath chosen." In the Psalms he enlarges on this — "He chose David also His servant." "I have made a covenant with My chosen." "Ye children of Jacob His chosen." "Aaron whom He had chosen." "He brought forth His chosen." "That I may see the good of Thy chosen." Pass from the Psalms to Isaiah and we read — "Thou Israel art my ser- vant, Jacob whom I have chosen. I have chosen thee and THE DOCTRINES OE FAITH. 169 not cast thee away." "Ye are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen." "I have refined thee but not with silver ; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." "Behold My elect in whom My soul delighteth." "Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." From the Old Testament let us pass to the Epistles of the New Testament, where we shall expect to find a more direct teaching. Take Romans, "Whom He did predestinate them He also called." "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect." "The children being not yet born neither hav- ing done any good or evil — that the purpose of God accord- ing to election might stand, it was said to her, the elder shall serve the younger." "For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy — so then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy." "There remaineth therefore a remnant according to the election of grace." "The election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded." I Corinthians : "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea and the things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are." Ephesians : "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world — having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, in whom we also have obtained an inheritance being predestinated accord- ing to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Philippians : "To you it is given on the behalf of Christ to believe." "Whose names are written in the Book of Life." Colossians: "Put on as the elect of God, bowels of mer- cies." I Thess. : "God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation." II Thess. : "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 170 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Timothy : "Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Titus : "According to the faith of God's elect." James: "Of His own will begat He us." I Peter : "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God." "The Church elected together with you saluteth you." John : "The elder unto the elect lady. The children of thine elect sister greet thee." Jude : "Ungodly men who were before of old ordained to this condemnation." Revelation : "None shall enter but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of life — in the Book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." I have reserved however as the strongest class of texts the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. "I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen." "Ye have not chosen Me but I have chosen you." "I have chosen you out of the world." "Many are called but few are chosen." "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me." "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him." "As thou hast given Him power over all flesh that He might give Eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept." "I pray for them — I pray not for the world but for them which Thou hast given Me." "I thank Thee Oh Father — Lord of heaven and Eearth — that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." From the general survey and scope of the Scriptures as gleaned from assertions of which these are specimens, we come now, II. To the Doctrine of Election as taught in the text. "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." These words occur in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles — the only part of the Scripture from which I have not quoted — and they are as strong and full a statement of the doctrine as one could possibly require. "But do the words behind these teach the doctrine of THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 171 Election? — Do the Greek words teach it?" They most cer- tainly do. Nothing could be more shallow or puerile than the evasions which have been resorted to to disprove this. 300 years ago, the most learned and pious men of the Refor- mation translated the Greek as they found it, and — for 300 years, against all criticism, this translation stands — even in the Revised New Testament, it stands. The Arminians and liberals insist that the Greek word means "disposed" — as many as felt disposed to have eternal life believed. Of course they believed if they felt disposed to believe. There is nothing very instructive in that — the question is "who disposed them?" The Greek word is passive — they were disposed — i. e. Some one disposed them. I studied Greek six years and then taught it three, in one of our first Seminaries, and have been keeping up with the language ever since, and I simply know that the word reTay/xavot involves an Outside Agent, in the arrangement. They did not dispose themselves — they iverc disposed — in other words: God did it — i. e., He or- dained them. Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, says : "The violent attempts which have been made to eliminate the doctrine of election, or predestination from this verse, by rendering the verb, "disposed," or, by violent constructions such as that of Socinus — "as many as believed, were ordained," can never change the simple fact that wherever the word occurs else- where in the New Testament, it invariably expresses the action of an outside person upon the subject." "The word reray/uevot " says Calvin, "means chosen by the free adoption of God. The mass refused but there was an election. Luke does not say they were ordained to faith, but 'unto life,' and that shows that faith depends on God's election. For, if two hear the doctrine together, and one is willing to be taught, while the other continues obstinate, this is not because the two differ by nature but because God makes them to differ, softening the mind and heart of the one by His will." Spurgeon says: "Attempts have been made to prove that these words do not teach predestination, but these attempts so clearly do violence to language that I shall not waste time in answering them. I read : 'As many as were ordained to 172 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. eternal life believed' and I shall not twist the text but shall glorify the grace of God by ascribing to that grace the faith of every man. Is it not God who gives the disposition to be- lieve? If men are disposed to have eternal life, does not He — in every case — dispose them? Is it wrong for God to give grace? If it be right for Him to give it — is it wrong for Him to purpose to give it? Would you have Him give it by accident? If it is right for Him to purpose to give grace to-day, it was right for Him to purpose it before to- day— and, since He changes not — from eternity." But now see, III. With this Doctrine of the text agree all the Evan- gelical Confessions in the world. Take for instance the old- est of them' — the Waldensian Confession: "God saves from corruption and damnation those whom He has chosen from the foundations of the world, not for any disposition, faith or holiness He foresaw in them, but of His mere mercy in Christ Jesus, His Son, passing by all the rest according to the irreprehensible reason of His own free will and justice." Take the Third Article of the Baptist Confession : "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory some men and angels are predestinated or preordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just con- demnation." Take the 17th Article of the Church of England — the Protestant Episcopal Church. "Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby (before the founda- tions of the world were laid) He hath continually decreed by His counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation, those whom He hath chosen in Christ, out of mankind, and to bring them, by Christ to everlasting sal- vation, as vessels made to honor." The Westminister or Presbyterian Confession says: "By the decree of God for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated to everlasting life — the number of these is unchangeable." Our own Reformed Church puts it in this way: "We believe that all the posterity of Adam, being fallen into per- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 173 dition and ruin by the sin of our first parents, God, then, did manifest Himself such as He is — that is to say, MERCI- FUL and JUST, — Merciful since He delivers and preserves from this perdition all whom He, of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus, our Lord, without respect to their works, — Just in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselves." Thus — from the Scope of the Scriptures — from the Teaching of the Text and from the Confessions of the Evangelical Church throughout the world, the Doctrine has been established 1 — that brings us IV. To the Meaning of the doctrine which, in the very treatment of the subject, so far, has been largely forestalled, and 1. It means that God's choice is absolute, — that it is a gratuitous election and that it depends on nothing outside of God Himself. He chose because He chose to choose — from no merit or attraction in the creature and from no foreseen merit or attraction to be in the creature, but simply out of the spontaneous goodness of His own volition which, from the mass of mankind — all equally guilty and all equally de- serving of death, selected some — a multitude whom no man can number, to live. Justice demanded that all should die, but justice cannot demand that, if some shall be saved, all must be. That is for God to decide. It rests with Him to save all, or none, or few. Those not elected are simply left to themselves and to their sins, and to the just consequences of their sins. But some reply : "God chooses people because they are good — because of sundry works which they have done." Who then is good? "There is none that doeth good, no not one." — and what works are thev on the account of which God is obliged to choose men ? Not the works of the law, for. "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." If men cannot be justified by the works of the law, they cannot be elected bv them. Besides the Scripture shuts off the cavil by saving: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us" — "Not ac- cording to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." If it was given us, we did not earn it nor can we. 174 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "But," says another, "God elects men on the foresight of their faith." But God gives faith, therefore He could not have elected men on the ground of any faith which he fore- saw. If, among a score of beggars, I determine to give one of them a .dime, who will say that I determined to give it, because I foresaw he would have the dime anyhow ? What nonsense. The gift of the dime is free — the choice is free, and so faith, the gift of God, is the result not the ground of election. Besides : To say that God elected those who He foresaw would believe is to deny election. God elected those He foresaw would believe and who were they? None, — abso- lutly none. He foresaw that none would believe, not one. Did He? Then because He foresaw this He had to elect, otherwise not one would have believed at all. 2. The Doctrine means that God's choice is unchangeable. It is not founded on anything else. It is before everything else. It is before His foreknowledge. He does not decree because He foreknows, but He foreknows because He has fixed it. If not He only guesses. If He foreknows it, He does not guess — it is certain. But if certain, then it is fixed — then He fixed it. 3. Election is eternal. "God hath, from the beginning, chosen you." Can any man say, when was that beginning? "In the beginning was the Word," — from the beginning God hath chosen. Then, if His choice has been from eternity, it will last to eternity. There is the unassailable comfort of the people of God. Nothing can survive to eternity but what came from eternity, and what has so come. will. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn thee — I will never leave thee nor forsake." 4. The Doctrine of Election is personal. Here again we meet the evasion that the election is of Nations — as Israel — and not of men. But how miserable the shift is will appear when we remember that nations are made up of men — that they are but a collection of units. If God chose the Jews, then He chose this Jew and that Jew — as Abram and Moses and David, and what is this but personal election? Besides : if it were not just to choose a person and rule in favor of that person, rather than another, how can it be THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 175 just to choose a nation and rule in favor of that nation, and set it up to the exclusion of all other nations? On such a line of- special pleading, the choice of a whole nation, being the more tremendous choice becomes the more tremendous crime. Election then is personal, God hath chosen us in Christ — "Us" means believers and believers singly — "He calleth His own sheep by name." Each name is written on the breast plate of the Great High Priest our Surety and our Substitute and therefore may we say and sing: "Sons we are by God's Election, Who on Jesus Christ believe, By eternal destination, Sovereign grace we now receive, Lord Thy mercy, Doth both grace and glory give !" 5. Election is a choice to holiness. "God hath from the beginning chosen you unto sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.'' The man who says he is elected, and leads a life of sin is a self-contradiction. God chooses the unholy, but they do not remain unholy. He justifies the ungodly, but they do not remain ungodly. "And belief of the truth." One mark of our election is our willingness to submit our reason to the statements of the Word of God. It is not our Christian consciousness which must guide us. Christian consciousness must be lifted to the plane of scripture. That "Thus saith the Lord" rules with us, is an evidence of our election. There are only two religions in the world — one built on election and the other on free-will. If I adopt the one religion, I break down and submit to God and to the Bible. If not, I erect my Christian consciousness — that is the modern phrase, — "my Christian consciousness" against them and it will betray me. We come now V. — To the Value of the Doctrine, — of what use is it in a practical way? If I am elected to salvation irrespective of works then I am elected on some other ground — then I am shut up to Christ only. If I have had some hand in making myself a Christian, T shall always be looking at the progress I make. I shall, 176 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. always, more or less, be resting on this or that evidence, — on this, or that thing or hoped for thing, in me or about me. But, when I thoroughly grasp the doctrine of election — I see that I am saved only as a sinner, for the sake of the merits of Christ, — I see that a naked faith saves me — a faith irre- spective of works although it produces them. How often do we lean upon something else besides Christ — on some other might or strength than that which is from on high. All this is taken away when we believe in election. We are shut up to God and faith only. Another use of election is that it, as nothing else, humbles us. The other doctrine — that of free-will makes us self- conscious, exclusive, self-righteous, and proud. We become Pharisees. We make ourselves to differ. We look down on others who are less strict and punctilious. "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, or even as this Publican" becomes our litany. But, when we are thoroughly broken — when we see we are sinners, and — at our best, nothing but sinners, — when we realize that we belong to a fallen race — ourselves as weak before temptation and as liable to fall as any, and that it is God alone who makes us to differ, then we grow humble and become more pitiful and more compassionate, and our prayer is — "God be merciful to me a sinner." But then again : the Doctrine of Election is ennobling. It makes heroic men. Even the men who, at the present, are most frantic for a change in the creed are proud of the fathers who made it and held it. What men they were — "of whom the world was not worthy." And what made them such men ? What transformed them from common to un- common clay? What but the infusion of a Blood-royal? Their principles — their religion, the marrow and the soul of which was the electing love of God. There is a nobility about the Calvinist which attaches to no other man. His doctrine mav seem stern in some aspects — stern as Moses, Elijah and Paul — but it alone can make s*uch men. Arminianism never yet produced a martyr. No man ever yet died for the sake of free-will. In front of the fire he falls from grace, to resume it again when the fire is extinguished. As it was said of one of the leaders in the General Assembly the other day. "He was an iron-clad THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 177 Presbyterian at the beginning of the week but at the end he was no longer a son of thunder." Had he been thorough, he would have been the same at the end of the week that he was at the beginning. Few men, when popular sentiment has lifted it, can dare to stand the storm. Their principles give way because they are not deep enough — genuine. They talk but when the crisis comes, they are lacking. The believer in the good old Doctrine of Predestination has back-bone. You cannot swerve him, though you grind him to powder. This is the doctrine which has made nations great and men and civilizations splendid. It is the doctrine which in every age — has communicated the highest upward impulse to human life, affairs, and aspiration. I am led to speak the more boldly, this morning, because of the religious change which is coming over this nation and over our age. Presbyterian means Predestination. The whole world knows that. And the whole world knows that there is no ground for the simple service and the simple government of the Church to which we belong, save the ground of election, which makes our creed differ, and gives us our theology and life. The reason for our existence is the doctrine which I have defended to-day- To relinquish that doctrine is to drift in one of two directions — toward ritualism on the one side or rationalism on the other. The last week has witnessed a movement on the part of a great denomination which is ominous for the future. The new creed, or, as it is called — "A Statement of the Reformed Faith"* — which has been adopted in New York, is a com- promise. It is a drawbridge between Calvinism and Arminianism. It can be pulled up with some very strenuous straining, perhaps, by the orthodox — but it can be easily let down by the liberals, and it will be. On the whole, it gives the doctrine away. But let me not close this sermon without a practical appeal to those who have sometimes made this doctrine an objec- tion to their immediate coming to Christ. To any such I would say: What claim have you, my Brother — a fallen creature — upon any choice of God at all? *Adopted by the Assembly of 1902. 178 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Do not your sins deserve damnation? Suppose He leaves you, as you are, to be lost, does He do you any injustice? Do you wish to be saved ? Then you may be — then you are elected — your very willingness and your wish show that God has been working upon you and working in love. If you long for religion, then God has chosen you to it. If you desire it He has chosen you to it. And, if you do not desire it, and will not have it, and resolutely put the offer of salvation in Christ away from you, why should you blame God if He does not force upon you to have what you do not want, and what you will not have, and what you do not value ? You are not a Universalist. You do not believe that all mankind will be saved, and if not, if there be an allotted number, why should you not be of that number? You will be if you do not refuse. You will be if you accept. You will be if you make your calling and election sure, if you say: "I am called, then I will come." "I trust, then I am elected." Both things will be true if you do. Then you will owe salvation to grace — to God's being beforehand with you, and moving on you — as, if not, — if you refuse, you will owe your destruction to your own wilfulness. You are here in God's house. His Spirit touches you, moves on you now — Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. If you do, you shall see that God's will was first — that you zvould never have willed had not God made you willing ■ — that He must have chosen you, for, left to yourself, you never would have chosen Him. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 179 A POPULAR TALK on ELECTION AND THE OBJECTIONS WHICH ARE OFTEN BROUGHT AGAINST IT. The question of Election or no election is the question of the Bible on the one side and the human reason on the other. The moment you begin to speak to men in Christian lands upon the subject of religion that moment carnal reason starts in them and they begin to tell you zvhat they think and how it seems to. them. Of course, opinions differ. One man believes if he is only moral, and does not drink or swear and is not guilty of any open or secret uncleanness, and if he is decently kind to his neighbors and pays his just debts, that is enough for him. God will receive him when he hands his checks in at the ?ate- Another man's opinion is that something more than this is needed. He thinks the Bible ought to come in, and that there ought to be some doctrine, as that God is a Trinity and that Christ is God's Son, so that one who denies the Trinity and denies the atonement cannot be saved. This last man really gives up the whole argument; for if you bring in the Bible at all, you cannot pick and choose. You cannot take Heaven and leave out Hell. You cannot take Christ and believe in the salvation of men without any Christ. You cannot take the New-Birth as a fact and then deny sovereign Election. If you take the Bible at all, you have got to take it as the Word of God. If it is God's Word, then, when He speaks that ends it. If you take the Bible as God's Word, you must expect that Bible to have in it some things that are dark to you. Mystery is dark and God is mysterious. "Lo, these are parts of His ways, but how little a portion is heard of Him." (Job xxvi:i4.) "How unsearchable are His judg- i8o THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. ments and His ways past finding out!" (Rom. xi:33.) "Great is the mystery of godliness." (I. Tim. iii:i6.) If the Bible is the Word of God, it will tell us things that are strange to us, things that reason did not know and could not guess. What were the use of God's giving down from Heaven a revelation of things which we already know ? If the Bible is the Word of God, not only will it contain things strange, but contradictory to nature. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts ; neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. lv :y, 8, 9.) "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. (I. Cor. ii:io-i4.) Now Election is one of these things strange and con- tradictory to nature, which the Bible teaches and which we are bound to receive. A doctrine which we reject at our peril. I stand here to-night and preach the Word of God. A man steps up to this desk and he says : "This thing, that thing and the other thing which you assert, does not seem true to me." I answer : "I do not assert it. I am not preaching my doctrine. What is the good of my doctrine, or any other man's doctrine? God says it. It is here in the Book. "Well! but," he says: "it does not seem so to me." My reply is : "What difference does it make how it seems? If God says it, you've got to square to it." "But, I can't see it that way!" No more could I once — no more can any man with his natural, blind and un- converted heart. That is just what God says : "The nat- ural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually dis- cerned." You come into God's house then, not to tell God what you think; but to find out what He thinks. That is far more important, because you cannot handle God, and He can handle you. And who are you, anyhow ? A child of yesterday — ignor- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 181 ant, fallible, finite, who have lived your whole life in sin, with now and then a spurt at goodness, from which you fell back. Who are you, who have read God's Word very little, who have studied it in a comparison of texts, in an honest en- deavor to get at its meaning, and its consistency with itself; next to none? Who are you to stand up before your Maker and the Book which one day is to judge you, and say: "I believe that," and "I don't believe that other." Who are you to contend against God ? What is the good of fighting God ? It is at your own peril, you take such an attitude, because this Book is your only Guide-Book to heaven, your only An- chor of hope, your only Title Deed to glory. Refuse this Book, and you throw away your guide-book through an unknown wilderness, you slip the anchor clench- ed within the veil, you burn up the title deed of your eternal inheritance. Cavil with this Book, and you draw the noose around your own neck, you pull the black cap down over your own face, you spring the drop from under you. The question then is not that of the human reason. "I think this." "I think that." "I think the other." Sir: God is not at your bar, you are at His. Sir : You will be damned for your thoughts! "Let the unrighteous forsake them." It is not what you think ; or I think. It is what the Word of God says. God has written you a Bible to correct your thoughts ; on purpose to teach you better than you can think. Dare to reject the Bible, at your peril. Election is a doctrine which no human reason could have discovered. It is a doctrine against which the human reason universally, at first, and always rebels. It is a doctrine, how- ever, to which the human reason, if ever saved, must consent. "He that is of God, heareth the words of God. He that re- ceiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him ; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last dav." (Joh. 8:47, 12:48.) "Oh, but my friends do not think so !" Then you have got to side with God in spite of your friends. "Oh, but it will be a cross to me, and I don't half under- stand it !" All right, you have got to take up that cross and 1 82 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. follow your light, and cling to your God. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." I. The Truth of the Doctrine. Election is in the Bible. From cover to cover it is in the Ribie. It is the great doctrine of the Bible ; more important — I w:ll explain what I mean by and by — more important, than even the cross. I cannot now begin with Genesis, and show how God chose Abel and rejected Cain. How "the children not yet being born, neither having done good or evil, that election might not be of works, God loved Jacob, as St. Paul tells us, (Rom. ix:n), and rejected Esau. I cannot follow down the whole book. Time affords me opportunity for only a few texts, but they are enough. Each one is a bullet, a hot shot, a 64-pound cannon-ball ; no re- sisting, no standing, no evading, no dodging it. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." (Acts 13:48.) "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy," not be- cause we were holy, nor because He foresaw we would be holy, but that we should be holy, to make us holy. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children." (Eph. i:4, 5-) "Many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt. xx:i6.) "God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salva- tion." (2 Thess. ii:i3.) "I speak not of all, I know whom I have chosen." (John xiii:i8.) "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." (John xv:i6.) "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but / have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John xv:i9). "What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for (though he was a 'seeker,') but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded" (Rom. xi:7). THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. 183 "Even so then, at the present time, there remaineth a remnant, according to the election of grace" (Rom. xi:5), and "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the be- ginning CHOSEN you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. ii : 13, 14). Of course it is perfectly clear that 1 cannot quote tne whole Bible to-night. I have not the time, nor indeed is it needed. A man who is determined to steel himself against God, and reject one single text, will also reject 20,000. Election is in the Bible, and Sovereign Election. "For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. ix:i5, 16). "Therefore He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." It does not say: "They harden themselves;" it says: "He hardeneth" (Rom. ix:i8). "Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another to dishonor?" (Rom. ix:20, 21.) "To them which stumble at the word, being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed (1 Pet. ii:8). "Ungod- ly men which were before ordained to this condemnation." (Jude4.) Not only is Election in the Bible, and Sovereign Election ; but also Preterition, or Passing by. Of course if God chooses some He passes by others. That is as clear as the nose on your face or as sunlight at noon. God, when He chose Elisha, passed by ten thousand other men just as likely and just as fit for service as he. He chose Elisha first and then He fitted him. It says so. He put him right into training under Elijah. More than this, He gave him a double portion of the spirit. A man is dead until he receives the double portion of the spirit. Not common grace alone which all men have, but double grace which all men 184 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. have not. The first sign of Election is the moving, drawing, working and effectual working of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost makes us willing in the day of God's power. He makes us believe what once we did not believe and love what once we did not love — "therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away ; behold! all things are become new" (2 Cor. \:\y). God chooses some and passes by others. I do not want to be passed by, and, if I can help it, I do not mean to be either. I propose, therefore, to bow right down to God's wyord and let Him do with me as He will. I believe if I do that, He will be gracious. In any case He will do right, for what do I merit from Him but damnation? I am not in a situation to dictate tejrns to Jehovah. God passes by, and He is bound to have some of us see this, and cry out for mercy. I am touching on Pretention to-night. Why do I touch it? Because the air is full of it. Because God has intended to arouse a sleepy Church and He has permitted enemies inside the Church, calling them- selves ministers, to raise this question. We have not raised it. We are satisfied with our Confession. We have been preaching the Gospel along in a sleepy sort of affectionate way, and all at once men begin to contradict God and raise discussion and set the Church and world on fire. Yet God intended it to rouse a sleepy Church and vindicate His sovereign glory. This week I received a letter from one of our Sunday School teachers, which makes this point so well, that I will give you his letter: "Dear Pastor — Have you noticed the Providence in connection with next Sunday's lesson? About three years ago, the International Committee met and picked out the Course of Lessons for 1890, little knowing what would happen in the meantime. For the last three months the world and Church have been agitated over the "Pro" and "Con" in regard to Preterition. Now, after all the wise men have had their say, on next Sunday every one (except the Episcopalians), whether for or against — in America, Ger- many, France, the Sandwich Islands and China must teach Preterition, using Christ's own words and His two exam- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 185 pies" — "Many widows were in Israel, but to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta to a woman which was a widow" — "Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, but none of them were cleansed save Naaman the Syrian." "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compas- sion." "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." "You say then, that God made some men to damn them ?" No ! I don't say so. I deny it. I simply stand by the Bible, and I take and put texts in plain English, and in their plain and straight-forward sense. God can pass by a sinner who, for his sins deserves hell-fire, without being charged with making that sinner to damn him. God made man, and man made himself a sinner, and man himself must take the con- sequences of that. Whoever says I say, "God made men to damn them," slanders me. It is a lie ! The Doctrine of the Bible is that fallen sinners — notice now, fallen sinners deserve nothing from God but damna- tion. If He damns them, then they get their desert — if He passes by them, I say, and damns them for sin, because they are sinners, they get their desert. If He saves them, they do not get their desert, they get mercy. Now, God does not save all men. Some men go to hell, and go there because they deserve it. That is all that we say. Only, when men are saved, it is God who makes the difference, and not the men themselves. It is not of him that willeth, let him will never so hard ; men are not born again by the will of the flesh. It is not of him that willeth. He cannot will. He is too fallen. It is God who shows mercy, who melts down his will and gives him a good will — or, as the Bible puts it — makes him willing in the day of His power. Put in a nut-shell, our doctrine simply is this : // any man be saved, it is God's will that saves him; if any man be damned, it is his own will damns him. That is our doc- trine, that is all that we teach and believe. That is the doctrine of the Reformed Church and of all the Calvinists. It is the doctrine of the Westminster Con- fession. It is the doctrine of the Church of England. [See the 17th of the 39 articles.] It is the doctrine of the Baptists. Take the third article of the Old Baptist Con- 186 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. fession: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or fore- ordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin, to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious jus- tice." That is the doctrine of the Reformed Church sustained by ail the holy creeds of Christendom. It is the doctrine of the Waldenses. It is the doctrine of Augustine ; the doctrine of Paul ; the doctrine of Jesus : "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Antiquity backs us. The Bible backs us. If any man be damned, his own sin; his own willfulness damns him. If any man be saved, God's mercy saves him; God's will saves him. By that doctrine we stand. That is the doctrine, now . . ; ; j . Jjjj II. What is the good of the doctrine? What is its work- ing, its practical power? It is a mighty power, so mighty that I do not know that I ever preached it directly without the conversion of souls. I use it for business. I preach Election, myself an elect minister, believing that some are elected, and that God will give me those souls. I preach it expecting results — ex- pecting them to-night. I preach it in reliance on God that He will send down His power. i i. Then election shows the justice of God. Suppose that God said in His law, "The soul that sinneth it shall die ;" and men went on to sin and nobody did die, how could we ever know that God's justice was anything more than a sham? How could we know, if no sinner ever was damned, that there was in God any honest and resolute justice? "Oh but we should see it in the case of the devils !" I beg your pardon — we never should see it. We should hear of it by the hearing of the ear, that is all. We never be- lieve in anything until it comes home to us. Besides, if God damns devils for sin, why not also damn THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 187 men? Are we any better than they? Is human nature any better than angelic nature?" If God had saved all sinners — all our race, there would have been a question forever, even in heaven, whether we did not merit it — whether we were not somehow better — less guilty than they? If God had saved us all; sin, to all eternity, would have been a light thing to us. What makes us see and feel sin is being found out, and being found out when we know that we must be punished. A man never feels sin so long as he is secure. It is the fear of being found out — i. e. of being punished, which brings sin's enormity home to him. Now, when in heaven we shall look down and see men damned and burning for ages for just the things and only the things that zve did, we shall get, to all eternity, a deeper, deeper sense of what sin is ; and snail cry with nezver and profounder accents, "Holy !" "Holy !" "Holy !" And that brings me to say what I said in the beginning of this address — that if a man is going to deny one of these two things — Election or the Gospel, he had better deny the Gospel than Election. Why? Why, because Election is more fundamental — lies back of the Gospel. He who denies the Gospel shuts out mercy of course. He claims that men get their deserts, and that this race is ruined universally without any hope — just like the devils. This ruins man but does not ruin God. The denial of Election ruins God. It denies His Sovereignty. It denies that He may do as He will with His own. It denies His government — His right to punish wicked fallen creatures. It obliges Him to save them — will He, nill He. It makes their will, not His will, the governing and over- riding principle. They run the universe and not He. It breaks down the exclusive walls of heaven and leaves the godless universe to roll, like a deluge, over God's prostrate sceptre and throne. A God with His hands tied is no God. A God who cannot exercise a sovereign prerogative based upon justice is no God. He is littler — smaller than the Governor of the State of New Jersey, who can pardon or refuse to grant pardon for reasons sufficient to himself. A God without Election were a God without a government 1 88 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. — without a throne — without respectability, or personality. A God obliterated — sponged out. Election saves God by showing His justice. He does not spare all when he might, if he would ; in order that sin may be seen, and seen — on a scale sufficiently grand to vindicate God — to get its deserts. 2. Election shows the mercy of God. Mercy is favor to the undeserving — to the hell-deserving. Very well. Election lets some go to hell ; then we see that we ought all to go there. But mercy steps in like a drag-net and draws out a multitude no man can number. This multitude is not saved for what it deserves ; if it got its deserts it would go down to hell with the rest. All it can say is, "I deserve to be damned, but God has had mercy" — "A monument of grace, A sinner saved by blood; The streams of love I trace Up to their fountain — God ; And in His mighty breast I see, Eternal thoughts of love to me." 3. Election brings the sinner to a true submission. He sees this thing is more serious. It is not simply a flutter and flurry and get men into the church. If men remain without a new birth and saving faith — what Scripture calls the faith of God's elect — you may get them anywhere, everywhere, and they are rebels still. They are aliens and foreigners still. They are ready at any pretense to desert — always ready to criticize and cavil, and argue and quarrel with God. Now Election shows a man that God is not under his gov- ernment, but that he is under God's government. That God is not standing before his bar, but he before God's. The question then is not "How he shall handle God," but "How God may handle him." If he is not careful, God will pass by him. If he is too noisy, too bold, and too self- confident, God may take away the Holy Ghost and leave him to the unpardonable sin. He is of no account anyhow — a drop in the ocean. His salvation is of far more importance to him than it can be to God. He had better, then, get down before God and sue humbly for mercy. If I saw a train of cars thundering down, and THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 189 myself on the track, and that to fall flat between the rails was my only salvation, I would fall flat. I would not stand up and argue with the locomotive that it ought not to run on those tracks, or run so precisely, or so fast, or that it ought to stop. If I saw it coming, I'd drop. Sinner what is the use of fighting with God? You carry your point to your own satisfaction, but you are damned all the same. God does not care for your point. Sinner art thou still secure, Wilt thou still refuse to pray, Can thine heart or hand endure. In the Lord's avenging day? See his mighty arm is bared, Awful terrors clothe His brow, For His judgments stand prepared, Thou must either break or bow. Down! Down with you! Down in the dust, and cry "If He slay me it would be just, yet, though He slay me, still will I trust in Him." 4. Election kills, at the root, salvation by merits and works. Any movement of the will is a work. It is some- thing from me, which / do. It may not run out into the grosser forms of Popish penance ; it may remain the unde- veloped Protestant repentance — that is seeking, resolving, or trying to do, or to trust. Election, by laying the axe at the root of the tree and declaring "it is not of him that willeth," cuts human merit up both root and branch, and plants a system solitary, isolated, separated by a bridgeless chasm from every other system of religion upon earth. That brings in the last item ; and 5. Election makes a sinner see and feel his dependence upon God's Spirit. If ever you are to be saved, my Brother ; you will be saved by God's Spirit. Give up every notion of saving your- self ; or helping to save your own self and look away from yourself, to Christ, by the help of His Spirit. "If I am elect, I shall be saved, let me do what I will !" No, you will not be. If you are elect, you will show the signs of election. One of those signs is to quit playing with conscience and 190 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. cavilling and quarreling with Scripture. A man who is elected swallows God's word whole. I would rather chew and swallow this Bible down, leaf after leaf, covers and all, than deny one single word in it. A man who is elect doesn't joke and palter and play with serious things. He is humble. A man who is elect reads his Bible. He reads it for light. He reads it and prays as he reads. He reads it on his knees and turns it into prayer, "Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Law." A man who is elect, prays. If God has elected you, He is drawing you by His Spirit, and the first thing He draws you to do is to pray ; "O God do not pass by me ! Do not take Thy Spirit from me. I am bad enough now, what will I be if left by the Spirit ?'\ A man who is elect is in earnest. He doesn't get to church about once in three or four times ; or once, say a quarter. He does not put off God. He knows he is a poor fool, and wishes that God would make him wise to salvation. He therefore heeds the monition : "Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors." A man who is elect follows the Spirit, cherishes the Spirit, yields to the Spirit, is afraid to grieve the Spirit. He follows the Spirit. But the Spirit leads him to Christ, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are elect, my dear friend, you will look for these marks ; above all you will ask yourself, "Do I believe upon Christ? Do I risk myself helpless, on Christ? Do I believe God's promise when He says He will save me, if I trust over, just as I am, on the Lord Jesus Christ?" Do I trust? And do I make that all? Do I rest on the blood, and that only. Do I see more virtue in Christ's Blood to save, than in all the sins of my life and the sin of my nature, to damn me ? Do I rest now? Do I trust now? Then what? Then I am elect. You come to Christ, and then you will know — not until then, your election of God. Election is not first, but Christ first, THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE 191 You have seen somewhere, perhaps, the story of Malachi, a sturdy Calvinist of Cornwall. An Arminian brother owed him £2. "Malachi," said the brother, "a«m I predestinated to pay you that debt?" "Put the £2 into my hand," said Malachi, stretching out his broad palm, "and I'll tell you at once." Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then, in the Blood, you will spell your election. Election is an ex post -facto assurance. Do, and then you will know — obey, and then you are blest; surely a natural common-sense order. If you are trusting in Christ I will tell you how you got to that point. You got there because the Spirit drew you. You may not have been conscious of the drawing ; you may not have discerned the supernatural, but it was there. Inch by inch the Spirit drew you — little by little the Spirit made you willing. "I girded thee though thou has not known me," that is the sacred secret of your spiritual life. God sent the Spirit, and because He chose to send the Spirit, and the choice runs back to everlasting; for right well you know that if God had not chosen you, you never would have chosen Him. If any man is non-elect he will not be damned, let him do as he pleases. He will only be damned if he sins against light. If any man is elect he will not be saved let him do as he pleases, he will only be saved as he trusts on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will only trust as the Spirit draws him to trust, and I believe the Holy Ghost is drawing some now. 192 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. PRETERITION ; JUSTICE OF GOD IN THE PERMISSION OF SIN. Ps. xcvii :2. "Clouds and darkness are round about Him : righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne." All religion starts from the being of God — a fact recog- nized by consciousness, which runs in our blood and roots deepest of the instincts of mankind. No nation is without the recognition of God. In no school of philosophy has His existence been brought into question. History does not reckon 20 avowed atheists in the whole 6000 years of the world's life. Neither is the name of one atheist recorded in Scripture. So fixed and central is the recognition of God in the convictions of man- kind that Satan himself never deems it worth while to argue the point. He nowhere denies the existence of God, but himself promptly owns Him in the presence of Christ, and indeed, in his first question to Eve in the garden. The being of God shines brighter to the moral eye than does the physical sun to the natural. As well argue the non-exist- ence of daylight as to argue the non-existence of that Sun behind the sun, within the circle of whose radiance all nature's beams are comprehended, swallowed up, submerged and lost ; which is the source of moral light, being and bless- edness and whose withdrawment means their blight and their obliteration. But, if there be a God, the fact means everything, for then, confessedly, He is the author, the preserver and the final end of everything, "for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." If there be a God, He must, in His being, outweigh the whole universe which is born of his breath. Roll the universe together with its decillions of angels and men and with all the coruscations of its constellated stars, what are these but an atom of dust to the immensity of God ? Placed in the opposite scale of the balance what do they weigh? THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 193 Nothing, and less than nothing, even than vanity itself. "He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers — to whom then will ye liken Me or shall I be equal saith the Holy One?" But if God be a being thus transcendent, He is to be re- garded, with awe. His name is not to be flippantly men- tioned, His methods are not to be presumptuously and reck- lessly impugned ; His declarations are not to be irreverently questioned, set aside, nor made the target of a polished sneer, still less the object of a coarse or ribald wit. "Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, a God doing wonders." "I was dumb because Thou didst it." "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" Irreverence is the sin of the age. "Our tongues are our own," is the sentiment, "who is Lord over us?" Alike we touch with our unseemly jests the sanctities of nature and the solemnities of God. Xo Sinai sobers us. no Calvary subdues us. In places, highest of the high, Inspiration itself is arraigned, and the climax is reached in words like these from the lips of a leading theological professor, "Paul tells me that I am clay in the hands of the potter. I deny it. This word of Paul's is not the last word, if it were it would be a satire on reason itself and the suicide of revelation." "Be still and know that I am God. Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why hast Thou made me thus ?" "Be still and know that I am God," is the true motto foi this hour — which seems to be an interval of lull like that when Enoch prophesied — a movement of suspense, of eating and drinking, of marrying and giving in marriage, above whose reveling and music rings again the old time warning, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their hard speeches which un- godly sinners have spoken against Him." The crying sin of our day is irreverence — impatience with God — wilfulness, the disposition to cry, "Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords." Perhaps in Edward's day it was otherwise. The shadow of an earthly throne was upon men, and behind it was the shadow of the Eternal Throne. That may have made men more submissive, more obedient in thought to God, more 194 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. ready to take and keep their place at His foot-stool — I do not know. The tendency at present is the other way. But God alone is great and He must be exalted. No preaching does so much as that which tones up sentiment ; and nothing tones it like exalting God. The sovereignty of God has always been greatly blessed in revival. No revival can be deep which does not take God for its center and does not insist on His claims. For the main thing in conversion is not that sinners shall be reconciled to them- selves, nor placed pleasantly in their relations to the Church, society, their fellow men ; but the main thing is that sinners shall be reconciled to God and placed right in their relations to Him, and everything short of this, which does not imply a true change of heart, and of our affections and our feel- ings towards God, is no conversion ; and the excitement which aims to produce such conversion is no revival. Accordingly, says Jonathan Edwards, "I think I have found that no discourses have been more remarkably blessed than those in which the doctrine of God's absolute sov- ereignty with regard to the salvation of sinners, and His just liberty with regard to answering the prayers, or suc- ceeding the pains of mere natural men, have been insisted upon. I never found so much immediate saving fruit from any discourses offered to my congregation as from those based on Rom. iii : 19, 'That every mouth may be stopped,' showing from thence that it would be just with God forever to reject and cast off mere natural men." The same sort of testimony is confirmed in our own days by Mr. Spurgeon's work and by the reports which come from Mr. Jones's recent work in San Francisco. Those who take in the Christian Intelligencer will see in an article of this last week on the "Law and the Gospel." a confirmation of the words of Jonathan Edwards. "Mr. Moody's work," I quote from the article referred to, "was one of the best ever realized here or anywhere by him. But Sam Jones's old style denunciation of sin and its punishment forever in hell, burst on this community like a cyclone. Moody may have benefited Christians more ; but Sam Jones reached sinners more than any or all the evangelists that ever came to this coast. His is the style for the case- hardened, conscience-seared old sinners, to whom Moody's monotone of Love ! Love ! Love is only soft sawder and THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 195 falls off like water from a cluck's back. Even Mr. Moody' himself, when he chanced once or twice to preach the Law as well as the Gospel, had more inquiries than from any other of his meetings when he preached the usual way." "Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne !" It is not pretended that it is easy to adjust in right proportions all God's lights and shadows. It is not true, however, as was said in the Presbytery of New York the other day, that the greatest soul winners are the men who keep repeating, "Come to Jesus !" The greatest soul winners are and have always been those who preach both sides of it, who with the sugar mingle some few honest grains of salt — sharp, quick and pungent, who show that it is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and that God, outside of Christ, is a consuming fire." It is not pretended that the sovereignty of God is not shrouded in an awful mystery. But that mystery is only the effect of the inevitable chasm split between a worm and Je- hovah— between the finite and infinite One. If God were not a mystery He would not be God to us, and God could not be a mystery without something in His dealings, dark, inscrutable, and calling for a check upon the thoughts of vain, presumptuous man. Nothing is a mystery in which there is not something dark. As soon as all is light, there is no longer a mystery. So the text puts it — "Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judg- ment are the habitation of His throne !" Of course, if God have a throne. He is a sovereign. If He be a sovereign at all, being God, He is an absolute sovereign. A God touched or moved in His will by His creatures, swayed by His creatures, were no God. It just comes to this, that God must sway or be swayed ; rule or be ruled ; do as He pleases, or be thwarted in His pleasure ; when we say "God," therefore, we assert a Sovereignty absolute. We assert God's right to control and to dispose of the uni- verse which He has made for His glory, just as He will and according to His good pleasure. We assert God's absolute right to control and dispose of all men and things in the universe — which make up the uni- 196 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. verse — just as He will and according to His mere good pleasure. "Hath not the Potter power over the clay — of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?'' The universe, therefore, being, as it is, the production of the infinitely wise, powerful, holy and benevolent Jehovah, is, on the whole, the best possible universe — and not only so, but it is, at this moment, and at every moment just what, at the moment, God would have it to be, and in all its particulars — sin not excepted. That leads me up to the Points which I make in the present discourse — which are three: 1. It is right for God to permit sin. II. If so, then it is right for God to pass by sinners and to punish sin. III. That any exemption of any sinner from punishment, must be an act of mere grace. I. — It is right, for God, to permit sin. Sin is in the world. It could not be in the world if not permitted. Then it is perfectly right for God to permit sin. i. Sin is in the world. Plenty of it — patent to sense — patent to consciousness, a soul defiling, mind-blighting, body destroying evil. 2. Sin could not be in the world, evil could not be in the world, without the permission of God. To suppose opposite, is to suppose that God is not om- nipotent, that there is a limit to what He can do, for, with- out doubt, He does stop some sin; but at a certain limit, He is checked and driven back. To put it, as the Arminian puts it, ''God does all He possibly can, to hinder natural and moral evil, but He cannot prevail. Men will not let Him have His wish. He therefore has to make a virtue of neces- sity ; and, unwilling and reluctant and restive, and uneasy as He may be, to submit. Sin and evil are too much for Him; The universe He fain would save. But longs for what he cannot have ! We therefore worship, praise and laud A disappointed, helpless God !" THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 197 Precisely the opposite view is compelled by proper sover- eignty, and by the voice of Scripture: "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things" (Rom. XK36). "Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos iii :6.) "That they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things" (Isa. xlv:7). "The Lord hath made all things for Himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. xvi.-4). "To them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Pet. ii:8). "Ungodly men who were before of old or- dained to this condemnation" (Jude 4). "God gave thou over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient" (Rom. i:28). "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, and the Lord commandeth it not" (Lam. iii :37). "For this cause God shall send them strong delu- sions that they should believe a lie" (2 Thess. ii:ii). These and hundreds of similar texts, make it as evident as daylight that God is seated on a throne of universal sovereignty and that He is so seated upon it, as not to be shaken. "He sits on no precarious throne, Nor borrows leave to be." His universe is just what He has decreed it. He sends forth His virtue and withholds it at His pleasure. There is therefore a complete and strenuous control at every point. God uses the Assyrian as the rod of His anger, although the Assyrian in his sinful war upon Israel knows nothing of God. God bids Shimei curse David ; and He restrains Leviathan, that old serpent, turning him about as with a hook in his nostrils. He decrees alike the crucifixion of Christ and the conversion of Paul ; the treachery of Judas and the restoration of Peter. From the Bible it is perfectly clear that, as at the first, without God was not anything made which was made, so now, without Him is not any- thing done that is done.* *See Zanchius de Predestinatione. 198 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 3. If sin be in the world, and if sin be permitted, then it is perfectly right for God to permit sin. God does do it, then it is right to do it. Can God do wrong? Can He deny Himself? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? In General, permitting sin is not committing sin. Not to prevent evil is not the same as doing evil. We claim that God is under no manner of obligation to keep men or devils from sinning. That, as sin is their own act, God may, although it is against His nature, for right- eous reasons, allow them to perform it. Moreover it is difficult to see what sense there could be in giving a law, if it were made impossible to break it, if the creature had no liberty at all to break it. In that case both the precept and the penalty of law, are equally absurd. God then has a right to permit the commission of sin. It is acknowledged that sin is, in itself considered, infinitely contrary to God's nature, but it does not therefore follow that it may not be the pleasure of God to permit it for the sake of the good that He shall bring out of it. Commission is one thing. Permission is another thing. Man commits sin ; God never. Commission implies an in- tention toward evil. Permission implies an intention to- ward good. As man commits sin, it is contrary to God's will ; for men act, in committing it, with a view to that which is evil. But as God permits it, it is not contrary to God's will ; for God, in permitting it, has respect to the great good He will bring out of it. If God regarded sin as man regards it, when he commits it, it would be against His will, and sin, and He would deny Himself ; but regarded as God decrees to permit it, it is not contrary to His will, nor sin, nor does he deny himself. Take for example the crucifixion of Christ. That was a great sin and, as men committed it, it was exceedingly heinous and hateful and provoking to God. Yet, on many considerations, and on the whole, it was the will of God that it should be done. Will any man say that it was not the will of God that Christ should be crucified ! Acts iv:28 settles the matter. "For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done."* *See Jonathan Edwards, Decrees and Election. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 199 We do not argue that God may do evil that good may come. That is the doctrine of the Jesuits ; and St. Paul says, of men who argue like that, their damnation is just. What we say is not that God may do evil, commit evil, that good may come, but what we do say is that God on the whole may will to permit evil to come to pass, that greater good may come. He may decree the fall, if out of that there is to come more glorious resurrection. He may allow one world to go to pieces, if out of those pieces He shall reconstruct a better. Why not? No doubt it is sin and nothing but sin for any being to do evil that good may come out of it, but even a creature might will to permit evil to come to pass, if he were wise enough to foresee and to decree that good shall come out of it, and just hozv good shall come out of it, and more good than in any other way. But as a creature would be out of place in permitting sin to occur where he could prevent it, because it is not his province, because he is not sovereign, and because he is not wise enough, nor sufficient enough to render it proper that such a power of permission should be lodged in his hands, it is, therefore, forbidden him, but not because the principle is wrong, but because the prerogative belongs to God. And what is true in general is true in particular. It was right in God to permit the sin of Satan. (1.) Because Satan had ample powers not to sin — He ac- tually existed ages as a holy being. (2.) Because Satan, being created perfect, was in more than equilibrio; he was weighted toward holiness. He had the grace to stand. Suppose a balance-rod on a pivot, one end of which rests on a bar. It is made so and placed so. The end which rests on the bar cannot fasten itself to the bar, so as never to tilt, but it can remain on the bar and lean on the bar, or it can slide its weight the other way and to the other end, and tilt itself down. That seems to be what Satan did. He was made resting. He did rest for ages. He could have rested forever, but he swung his weight the other way. God did not swing it. 200 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. God took nothing- from him — no grace, nor weight, nor power that he had ever had. Satan shifted himself. Vanity was born in him — self born. Conceit was born in him — self born. Imagine the conceit of any creature trying to outrival God. It was pure emeutc — rebellion. No one knows where that comes from. Surely it does not come from God, for He hates rebellion and does not care to have any one rebel against Him. The sin was Satan's own. God had nothing to do with it — either to produce it, or suggest it, or create a weak- ness out of which it should spring. It seems to be a neces- sity of free-will, and Satan unfallen had a free-will, that it should be able to originate evil. One thing the creature can create and God cannot, and that thing is sin. The creature cannot make life, nor add to grace, but he can lose, spend away and destroy. Satan was able and showed himself able to stand, and might have stood forever, but he elected to fall. He did it with his eyes open — as much so as they ever could have been open. He created his sin out of nothing, and for no cause whatever, ungratefully out, as we may say, of whole cloth. God simply did not interfere. He determined to leave Satan to himself to prove him — to see what he would do, and he fell. God allowed him to fall, and He had a right to allow him to fall, nor could the devil charge, "With light sufficient and left free His wilful suicide on God's decree." God permitted Satan to sin, and He was right in doing it ; but, if Satan, then any one. God may permit wicked men to sin. He may leave Shimei to curse David. He may leave Pharaoh to harden his heart. He may leave Balaam to deceive himself and Saul to the wo; kings of an evil spirit. He may, when men and women think they are strongest, leave them to themselves. The d:"'il fell just at the moment when he thought he was strongest. Just at the moment when he said, "Perfect in wisdom, perfect in beauty ! I know it all. I cannot be tempted." Oh ! what a commentary on the monition. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall !" THE D0CTR1KES OF GRACE. 201 II. If it be right for God to permit sin then it is right for Him to pass by sinners and to punish sin. Preterition, passing by, is simply leaving angels, men and sinners to themselves. God does this. He left Satan to himself. He left Adam to himself. He left Hezekiah, in the matter of the am- bassadors, to himself. 2 Chron. xxxii:3i. "God left him to try him that He might know all that was in his heart." God also left Ephraim. "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone," — let him alone! Preterition — a passing by, is necessarily involved in elec- tion. If it be true, as the Bible asserts, that God, out of His mere good pleasure, chooses some to everlasting life, it, of course, follows that He passes by others — i. e., does not choose them. But this also is just as strongly asserted. "One shall be taken and another left." "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hard- ened!." And Samuel said, "The Lord hath not chosen this, neither hath the Lord chosen this." And Samuel said unto Jesse, "The Lord hath not chosen these." "I speak not of all," said our Saviour, "I know whom I have chosen. Ye be- lieve not because ye are not of my sheep." Still again the illustrations employed by St. Paul in our chapter oblige the same conclusion. "The potter out of the same lump of clay makes one vessel to honor and another to dishonor." It would destroy the very point of the com- parison to say that the reason of this choice was not the free-will of the Potter but a difference in the clay. In that case the clay would not be the same clay — would not be the same uniform mass. It would involve a contradiction to say that Esau was passed by because he was worse than Jacob. The whole story goes to show that he was not worse. The very point made by the apostles is the sovereignty of the choice. Finally, our Saviour makes perfectly clear what is the truth on this subject. There is no better preacher than Christ, and He refers the hiding of these things from the wise and prudent, not to the wise and prudent themselves, but to the good pleasure of God. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." 202 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. But if it is right for God to pass by sinners and permit them to sin, then it is right to punish them for sin committed. i. Because sin, as sin, deserves to be punished. No mat- ter where found in the universe, nor how it came about, sin deserves to be punished. Its wages, its desert, is death. 2. God has a right to punish sin because he had no hand in it. He never abetted it. He never connived at it. He was aloof from it. He had no more to do with Satan's sin than Gabriel had. He simply found it. Then He must punish it. 3. He must punish it on His own account. Because sin insults him; because it is rank rebellion against Him; be- cause it aims to annihilate Him ; because it must die the death, or God. 4. God must punish sin because His Law compels it. Because His law is holy and forbids sin. Because His law threatens wrath on evil doers and declares, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." But III. If it be right for God to permit sin, and to pass by sinners — leave them to sin and then punish sin, why then, and here is the practical point of the sermon, — the exemp- tion of any sinner from punishment is an act of free grace. You are not to be saved, my friend, for any merit, any more than the devil to-day, were he to be saved, would be saved for merit. You will have to be saved, if saved at all, just as the devil would be saved — a lost case. You will have to give up and own up that your situation is desperate, that God might justly leave you to perish, that the only wonder is that you have not already perished — that you are not, this moment, in hell. Ah ! yes, "On floods of liquid brimstone tossed . Forever ! Oh, forever lost !" You will have to give up that you are lost, helpless — in the hands of God, at His disposal — that it would be per- fectly right for Him to drop you, this moment, into hell, and that if He does not do this, and still gives you a chance, an opportunity to hear the Gospel welcome, and to run and fly to Jesus, it is only of free grace. You will have to give up that you can do nothing, if God shall withdraw His Spirit; and that while He is drawing THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 203 you by His Spirit, it is wretched business on your part, to cavil, question, and resist His Spirit — close your eyes to your last hope, and your ears to an offer, soon, if rejected, to be heard no more on earth, nor in the gloomy vaults of hell. Oh, never, never more ! From this whole subject, let us learn, my brethren : 1. There is no use in fighting against God. "Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them altogether." 2. True submission to God's sovereignty is true con- version, and men who fight election and resist God's will are not converted, and will probably not be. 3. Faith, or a simple trust in Jesus Christ, is the straight road out of all difficulties, perplexities, and worries as to the sovereignty of God, since, anyhow, we lie at His foot- stool and there is nothing else to do but take the remedy and the escape He offers: "Bow the knee and kiss the son, Come and welcome sinner, come," is the short cut of the Gospel. Certain other most practical thoughts flow out of this subject, and 1. All rebellions, all checks, all hindrances, all dissensions, all evils in the Church are by God's permission, and by the ordering of God. God permitted and ordered Satan's emeute, Miriam's sedition, Korah's rebellion, and the action of the spies. Impatience with these things is impatience with God. Unbelief on account of these things is dishonor- ing to God. It must needs be that offences come, but God will take care of His kingdom. 2. Wilfulness, insubordination grows out of vanity and fancied self interest, and is sure to meet its doom. Satan has run a long course and posed as an angel of light in his deception, but the end of Satan is sure. 3. Cultivate the opposite spirit. Suppose Satan had been willing to sink self in the glory of God, and take his proper place and yield to Christ, and push Christ's king- dom ? Why then he would never have been Satan at all. 4. Dare not to say : "I am strong, self-sufficient. I shall not sin. I shall not fall !" Resolve nothing, in your own 204 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. strength. There is nothing God hates as He does a re- solution made in our own strength, because it sets Him at naught and defies Him. If God leave you, you will sin — you will fall. Pray God not to leave you — to keep you. 5. Dare not to say : "I sometime shall sin. Oh ! I know I shall fall. I have battled and battled against a particular sin, but I know I shall one day commit it." Of course you will commit it, if you say you will commit it, and if left to yourself; but pray God not to leave you, and believe with all your heart that God, for Christ's sake, will not leave you. Never cast away your confidence. Remember that self-reprobation is certain reprobation. Saying that I am one of the non-elect makes non-election sure. 6. Pray that God may not pass you by, say it and sing it, "Pass me not, oh gracious Father, Sinful tho' my heart may be, Thou mights 't leave me but the rather Let Thy mercy fall on me. "Pass me not, oh tender Saviour, Let me love and cling to Thee, I am longing for Thy favor, Whilst Thou art calling, Oh call me. "Pass me not, oh mighty Spirit, Thou canst make the blind to see, Witnesser of Jesus' merit, Speak the word of power to me. "Pass me not, Thy lost one bringing, Bind my heart, oh Lord, to Thee While the streams of life are springing, Blessing others, oh bless me." 7. Wonder ! O wonder that you are not already passed by. Oh what a wonder ! How you have resisted, held out, cavilled, grieved the Spirit, provoked God. Spared yet — what a wonder ! THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 205 "Depth of mercy can there be, Mercy still reserved for me, Can my God His wrath forbear, Me, the chief of sinners, spare. "I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face, Would not listen to His calls. Grieved Him by a thousand falls. "Kindled His relentings are, Me, He now delights to spare. Cries, how can I give thee up, Let's the lifted thunder drop. "There, for me the Saviour stands, Shows His wounds, and spreads His hands, God is love I know, I feel, Jesus weeps, He weeps and loves me still." 8. And finally. Avoid most sedulously things which vou have reason to believe will cause God to withdraw from you. Resist not the Spirit. Quench not the Spirit. It is often some secret sin, some worldly lust, which keeps a man from coming to Christ and casting himself, a lost sinner, on Christ the lost sinner's Saviour. 2o6 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. REPROBATION.* "What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" — Rom. iv :22. He who declares the whole counsel of God takes care to divide it, from the fountain-head, into the two grand and all-inclusive branches of election and reprobation. Indeed, the private reader of the Scriptures, truly enlightened and led into somewhat deeper communion with the mind of the Spirit, soon comes to discover for himself these two streams of the divine purpose flowing side by side from Genesis to the Revelation, and terminating, on the one hand, in the bestowment of everlasting mercies upon the chosen seed of the woman ; on the other, in the infliction of everlasting miseries upon the rejected seed of the serpent. Since, then, the Bible is occupied with nothing else than the exhibition, development, and application of the doctrine of grace, or of the divine decrees with reference to the hu- man creature, he who grapples with, searches out, and ex- pounds this doctrine most clearly, most earnestly, most affectionately, is the teacher who shows himself most "ap- proved unto God" — "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth ;" while he who ignores, obscures, or timidly touches upon this doctrine shows himself "unskilful in the word of righteousness" — a man more ready to sacrifice the honor of God than to lose the vapid and transitory honor which is obtained by those who court the adulation of "this present evil world." But some object to the preaching of predestination with vividness and power. They tell us that it does no good, that it is calculated rather to do great harm. To such objectors, we are not careful to frame a satisfactory reply. *Reference to this sermon is made in Lange's Commentary on the Romans. Chap, ix, page 327. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 207 Having received a supernatural Gospel, couched in ex- plicit statements of fact, our business is to preach that Gospel in the enunciation of the same explicit state- ments. We are not at liberty, had we the desire, (and we trust in God that we have not,) either to alter, adulter- ate, soften, or gloss over a single one of the clear and luminous terms which God the Holy Ghost has selected to become the vehicles of the testimony of truth. Those, then, who object to the preaching, object to the very words of God, and so make God a liar. Their controversy, there- fore, is not with men, but with God ; and to Him we can well afford to leave them, assured that, with a whole eternity at His disposal, He will find no great difficulty in vindicating Himself before a self-erected tribunal of worms. If, however, any of the true children of God are desirous to learn why we are so strenuous and so constant in affirming the truth of an eternal predestination, it be- comes a grateful task, on our part, to assign several con- vincing and most consolatory reasons. 1. Because, in the preaching of this truth, God is most of all exalted, vindicated, glorified. He is thus, as in a lucid mirror, seen to be no pasteboard monarch — no nominal, fictitious king, but to be in actuality and fact the invincible sovereign, potentate, and autocrat of the vast universe, whose glory floods it and whose will is instantaneous, in- disputable, independent, and inviolable law. 2. Because this doctrine, by tracing the love of God to its origin in His mere good pleasure, puts that love at once upon a foreign and so an immutable basis — upon a basis anterior to the existence of its object, nay, anterior to the existence of creation itself, and thus opens a door for that joyous surprisal, that adoring gratitude, that wist- ful and expectant wonder on the part of the creature, which make the sum of all blessedness, and which, finding their spring in the mysterious remoteness of an eternal past, flow on in rising and immeasurable streams of light, of life, of peace, of ecstasy, to gulf themselves for ever in the unknown glories of eternities to come. It is an in- telligent reception of the apostolic assurance, "In love hav- ing predestinated us.'' which causes the elect of God to cry: 208 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "What was there in us that could merit esteem, Or give the Creator delight? 'Twas even so. Father, we ever must sing, Because it seemed good in Thy sight. " 'Twas all of Thy grace we were brought to obey While others were suffered to go The road which by nature we chose as our way, Which leads to the regions of woe." 3. We preach predestination, because this doctrine, by stripping the last shred of merit and snatching the last atom of ability from fallen man, refers salvation — in con- ception as in birth, in source as in stream, in bud as in flower, in seed as in fruit — to the simple option of Jehovah's will, and makes even the purpose of election itself to stand, not of works not of foreseen belief, or unbelief, but "of Him" alone "that calleth,'' and who "hath mercy on whom He will have mercy," and "hardeneth" whom He will. The doctrine of predestination, therefore — of absolute, free, unconditional predestination — is brought in with the specific design of removing every fond and fancied qualification on the part of sinners — of applying the axe to the very root of nature's tree — and of "giving God His own/" Empty, naked, helpless, and self-despairing souls, who have fled for refuge to the solitary shelter of redeeming blood, are thus comforted, encouraged, and built up on their "most holy faith," while noisy, pretentious, boastful, and self- deluded hypocrites, of whom the Church in prosperous times is full, are ploughed up as cumberers of the ground and cast out as refuse weeds from the garden of the Lord. 4. The doctrine of predestination is of especial value in bringing believers to a true knowledge and delightful en- joyment of their present complete standing and security in Jesus Christ, and consequent instalment in all the bless- ings of the covenant of grace. For, when once assured of their eternal election in Christ Jesus, nothing is more absolutely certain than that they shall ulti- mately reach that glory to which in free love they have already been predestined. Nor is there any reason why such an assurance should be regarded as some- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 209 thing absurd, fanatical, marvellous, or even strange; for to stand in such an assurance is to occupy the only position proper for and therefore worthy of a child of God. Every man who has been called to believe in Jesus Christ ought at once to conclude that he has been elected. For God the Holy Ghost calls none save those who have been redeemed by God the Son; and God the Son redeems none but those who have been elected by God the Father. He, therefore, who in the golden letter of his calling, resplendent be- neath the crimson surface o'f the blood of Christ, spells out the truth of his election, has a hope "which maketh not ashamed." being witnessed by the love of God shed abundantly abroad in his heart "by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." 5. The doctrine of predestination is to be preached be- cause it affords the steadiest and most powerful motive to all good works. An assurance of our eternal predestina- tion to glory brings the soul into a condition of moral equipoise — into that state of high, unbroken spiritual re- pose which is the necessary preparative for all true and fruitful service. Rest, is the secret of power, and the more profound the soul's rest in God, the more steady and irresistible will be the energy. It has been said that in- telligent phlegmatics rule the world. This is only another way of stating the obvious truth that calmness and com- posure are the essential prerequisites to all vast and com- plicated enterprises. This holds good in the domain of spiritual as in that of natural affairs. The man who is working in order to be saved is anxious, nervous hesitat- ing inefficient. When brought to the test of a great princi- ple, he lacks courage, decision, anvil-like endurance. He, on the other hand, who is working because already saved, be- cause predestined to a glorious career for God, works, it may be with less ostentatious bustle, but with a force ever concentrating, ever accelerating and augmenting, till it reaches an intensity and volume which suggest some- thing almost if not altogether superhuman. The idea of destiny involves the idea of duty; and when these two ideas coalesce in one subject, the effect is truly stupendous. This explains, on natural principles, the career of Moham- med and of Napoleon. It explains on spiritual principles, 210 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. the career of St. Paul, of Augustine, of Calvin, and of Knox. Predestinarians, whether on the platform of nature or of grace, are invariably the foremost winners of the crown of life. 6. Predestination is to be preached, because it is the tremendous sledge-hammer wielded by the Holy Ghost in knocking the last prop from under the sinner who is vainly striving to find some ground of encouragement within him- self. So long as a man hopes something good of himself, he remains the open enemy of Jesus' cross. So long as a man is trusting to some future preparation to be made by himself, or to be wrought within him by the Holy Ghost, he remains in danger of eternal fire. But when the doctrine of election comes to such a man, it declares plainly, that it is not of him that willeth, even if he had the will; nor of him that runneth, even if he had the earnestness ; but of God alone, who showeth mercy. When the doctrine of elec- tion comes, it teaches that the laborious moralist — the self- complacent penitent — "hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded." The introduction of this doctrine, therefore, is the prelude to the sinner's utter self-discouragement and self-despair. It is the prelude also to the sinner's complete cessation from his own works as useless, and to his casting of himself over, as lost, and wretched, and helpless, upon the foreign yet solid and sufficient and imperishable, because divine, foundation of righteousness, devoid of human works. Such a sinner, bereaved of every other hope, lays hold, at once, upon the dying Son of God. He cries : "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall ; Be Thou my strength and righteousness, My Jesus and my All." Such being some of the substantial reasons why the doc- trine of predestination should be preached, I purpose, by the help of God, to present the negative side of it to-day. And if the rolling forth of the high and holy ''wheel" be as in Ezekiel's sight, dreadful, let us reflect that this very dreadfulness is itself worthy of all admiration, since it forms THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 211 the background against which are conspicuously displayed the adorable and unvaikd splendors of that sovereign God, of whom and through whom and to whom are all things; to whom be edorv for ever. Amen. Our text gives us for a theme — The Divine Forbear- ance— the Objects on which it terminates — its Char- acter, and the Reasons of its manifestation. I. The Objects of the divine forbearance — "vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction." If Election be true, Reproba- tion is true. If God does not elect then He leaves. Rom. xi \y. "The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Some sinners He allows to go on in their sins. To others He shows a gratuitous mercy. 1. Reprobated men are vessels. A vessel is something which owes its workmanship to the skill and pleasure of another. In this sense those who will finally be lost are properly spoken of as vessels. They owe their existence to the hand and will of God. "'The Lord hath made all things for Himself — yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." "God is the Creator of the wicked, although not of their wickedness ; He is the Author of their being, although not the Infuser of their sin." A truth still more solemn to contemplate is included here. What the wicked man is as a vessel, in other words, the de- gree of degradation and of shame which he inevitably reaches, is determined beforehand, by the uninfluenced and sovereign will of God. "Hath not the potter power over the clay, to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?" Over each reprobated man God holds and exercises an ab- solute and invincible dominion. The degree of sinful excess to which such a man shall run is fixed by God writh as perfect a precision as is the water-mark of ocean. To that degree the wicked man shall reach; beyond it he cannot go. The voice of Omnipotence opens or shuts a sluice gate upon all human wickedness, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." But, again, a vessel is not an independent agent, but a dependent receiver. It can do nothing against the hand 212 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. that fashions it to this shape, or that shape, but is the passive subject of a superior power. In this sense likewise are reprobated men called vessels ; because, however actively, voluntarily, and spontaneously wicked, they are always so governed and overruled in their w ickedness as to accomplish the precise object which from the beginning God has had in view, namely, the more per- fect illustration of His glory. The reprobate, therefore, as well as the elect, are entirely and in all respects dependent upon the naked will of God. "In Him they live and are moved Kiv6v/.ieSa and have their being." In company with devils their motions are controlled in this direction or in that, as truly as are those of saints and angels. Let not wicked men, therefore, puffed up with a vain-glorious pride, imagine that by their sins they are working vast injury to the government of God and ingulfing the Almighty Himself in an unassuageable sorrow. In all that they do, however high they swell in proud rebellion, they are but the uncon- scious instruments of an everlasting purpose. Even the men who crucified the Lord Jesus, "both Herod and Pontius Fil- iate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel" are said to have been gathered together against God's "Holy Child," "for to do whatsoever His hand and His counsel deter- mined before to be done." So far, then, are wicked sinners from possessing any power to break over or to frustrate the decrees of God that the Psalmist emphasizes the contrary truth — "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and the remainder of wrath Thou wilt restrain." To this view it is possible that some may object, saying, "Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted His will?" "God's will is accomplished in any event; why then does God take vengeance?" Such an objection, serves but to confirm what has already been advanced ; for its very statement becomes an open proof that our doctrine is that of the Apostle Paul himself. To it therefore we may make reply in the apostolic words, "Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say of Him that formed it. Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clav, of the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?" THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 213 There is one other thought concerning these reprobated vessels. They are of clay. This argues the impurity of their nature. Reprobated man is in himself and of himself im- pure. Clay is not an original substance. It is the result of decomposition. It is the effect of a crumbling and rotting of the primeval rock. We have in the clay therefore an admirable emblem of the reprobated sinner in the hands of God. In his original rock — that is, in Adam — he was holy ; God made man upright ; but in his fallen clay he is unholy. His nature is one entire pravity when God begins to deal with it. It is as if a potter should seize upon some existing putrid mass and throw it on his wheel. At each revolution of the wheel, beneath the potter's hand this mass takes shape and outline. Its final pattern is the perfect reproduction of a plan long before matured within the potter's brain. It is therefore what the potter from the first designed it should be ; but the vileness and offensiveness of the material remain just what the potter found them. They are unchanged. The badness of the substance must therefore be charged upon the substance ; but the glory displayed in the result must be referred to the artist's solitary brain and hand." In order to show the more conclusively that the difference between the elect and the reprobate is not to be accounted for upon the supposition that God takes an innocent crea- ture, or an indifferent creature, and makes him bad, we are taught that the vessels of honor and dishonor are made of the same lump. The heavenly Potter takes de- praved humanity as such. He lays it on His table. He seizes the knife of double-edged predestination and severs the common lump into two portions. The one He leaves un- changed and turns it out a vessel of dishonor. The other He changes, works anew, cleanses, clarifies, and forms therefrom the crystal vessels of His grace. God. then, is in no sense the author of sin. To assert *This explanation is given because, true in itself, it best sub- serves the purpose of the present discourse. It is not intended for one moment, however, to obscure, still less to trench upon, higher and more absolute views of divine sovereignty springing from the germinal truth that redemption was in purpose anterior to crea- tion ; that the second Adam was set up from everlasting before the cloudless vision of the Holy One as the "preeminent and all-con- taining object of His counsel." 214 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. this is not only to utter the language of blasphemy, but of sheer self-contradiction. In dealing with the sinful lump, God deals with what has already been condemned in fallen Adam. Finding the will of man evil — not creating it so but leaving it so, to be carried along by its own self impul- sion— He turns it hither or thither, as one by building a dam might turn a poisonous stream in one direction or in an- other, not changing the quality of the stream which always remains corrupt and malarious, but overruling and obliging its very corruption to work out his purpose ; or as one might use a broken edged axe in shaping a timber, or play on a harp the strings of which are out of tune and discordant. The shaping of the course of the wicked is God's, but the wickedness, the broken edge, and the discord are his own. The wicked man has no notion of serving God's purpose in what he is doing, but only of serving himself and his lusts, but God overrules and serves Himself of his very sin. A text in point is Isa. x:5, "O, Assyrian, the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation — Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy." Another text already quoted is ''The Lord hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Prov. xvi 14. Thus in the case of one man He shapes a vessel of dishonor. In the case of another, glory to His name, He does a double work of free, unmingled grace ; first creating a new nature, and sec- ondly moulding this new nature after the faultless image of His Son. The clay, then, in itself designates complete corruption, total putrescence. It is a lapsed lump, absolutely and remedilessly vile. 2. The second truth taught in the description of the ob- jects of the divine forbearance is that, sinners as they are, they are vessels "Of wrath" — or vessels devoted to wrath. The fact that certain wicked men are thus devoted is abundantly clear, not only from this, but from many similar passages of Scripture. "The Lord hath made all things for Plimself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil." "Have ye not asked them by the way, and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." "This THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 215 is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God." Since fallen man, immersed in sin by the apostatizing act of Adam, has no whit of claim upon God's saving mercy, it is nothing more than right that this fact should be made evident, yea, that it should be vividly and illustriously set forth. And God in His wisdom and in His holiness has determined to make it evident and to set it forth, by actu- ally withholding from certain men that efficient grace with- out which it is impossible that they should repent and be- lieve ; the effect of which righteous withholdment is a per- fect fulfilment of the divine decree and predictions con- cerning them; as it is written, "This child is set for the fall of many in Israel;" and again, "He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom he will He hardeneth;" and again, "But though He had done so many miracles before them, they believed not in Him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying, Lord who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not be- lieve, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." In pursuance of the purpose thus indicated, we are taught again that Christ is made "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even unto them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto they were appointed;" and again that certain wicked men are "as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed ;" and once more, that there are "certain men crept in unawares, who were of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Xor is this devotion, or, to employ inspired language, this "appointment to wrath," to be construed into a mere invol- untary permission, or a barely negative refusal on the part of God. The act is positive, determinate. God represents Himself as actually setting aside and rejecting a certain definite and fixed number of our fallen race, and reserving them for that punishment which is most justly due to their 216 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. known, cherished, innumerable, and aggravated transgres- sions. These predestinated ungodly are known individually to God, just as truly as are the elect ; for of both classes He makes the generic assertion, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Therefore, as "the election hath obtained it, even so" the rest were blinded, that is, definitely left to blindness, "according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day." At this point, lest any be tempted to misrepresent the doc- trine, as if God made certain men to damn them, let us ex- plicitly deny the utterance of any so horrible and blasphem- ous a sentiment. The doctrine which we teach — the doctrine of the Bible — is, that God made man neither to damn him, nor yet to save him, but for His ozvn glory;* and glorified in him He will be — if not in one way, then in an- other. Nor is it our doctrine that God made man wicked in order to damn him; for "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions," which wicked inventions are the sole procuring cause of their damnation. There is one thing which the creature can create which God cannot create and that thing is sin. If man is a sin- ner he has himself only to blame for it, the consequences, if dreadful, are his own. Men are damned for sin and for sin only; for God "hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." The reprobated vessels are objects of wrath — of wrath, not of malice, not of passion, but of wrath ; that is, of the calm and holy but certain and irresistible indigna- tion of an infinitely righteous God who must and will punish sin. 3. The objects of the divine forbearance are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. God destroys nothing, which is not fitted to de- struction. If vessels of wrath are destroyed, it is be- cause this is what they are fit for, and because they are fit for nothing else. A certain fitness exists in the dry tree and the chaff for the flames into which we cast them, and so a certain fitness exists in the sinner for his doom. This fitness, however — and here let me speak in thunder *"The Lord hath made all things for Himself." Prov. xvi:4. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 217 tones — this fitness lost sinners ozve entirely to themselves ! There is no such thing as sovereign, unmerited damnation. If men are fitted for damnation it is because they have fitted themselves. If men are damned, it is because they deserve damnation. It is because they painfully and laboriously fit themselves for a just damnation. It is because they con- tinue to "add sin to sin," until they come to "draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." If men are damned, it is because they do evil "with both hands earnestly," as it is written, "O Israel, thou hast de- stroyed thyself." The sum and substance of the Gospel is this, "// any man be saved, God's will saves him. If any man be lost, his own ZL>i\l damns him:" God having passed over a fallen man ; having left him as he found him — a thing which it was per- fectly right for God to do — this man, despite all the outward restraints of God's holy providence ; despite all the calls of God's holy Gospel ; despite all the strivings of God's Holy Spirit — recklessly goes on to sin, audaciously presumes upon divine goodness and loving-kindness, and plunges down- ward in his obstinately mad career, as the avalanche which gathers volume and momentum in its swift descent, or as the swine which, driven by devils, ran violently down a steep place and perished in the sea. All that God does in the case of a reprobated man is simply this : He leaves him more or less absolutely to the inevitable gravitation of his own depraved and self-destroying nature. There is no need, that God should do anything in the . case of a reprobated man, except leave him to himself. The man does all the rest. He damns himself. He de- termines his own damnation by the inevitable gravitation of his own depraved and self-destroying nature. Like the mountain torrent, nature's putrescent stream overleaps every barrier in rushing downward to abysmal death. The fiat of Omnipotence alone can make water run up-hill, and this is the appropriate illustration of what God effects when He creates a new heart in His elect and renews a right spirit within them. Having remarked upon the objects of the divine for- bearance, let me now speak: 218 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. II. Of its character. "What if God endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruc- tion?" Any endurance and toleration of a sinner, that is any delay in the infliction of the righteous penalty upon a sin- ner, is in itself an infinite marvel — an amazing conde- scension on the part of God. And the more so because such delay is, as appears from the history of apostate angels, without a precedent. When angels sinned, wrath, like a vengeful thunderbolt, whelmed them at once in depthless ruin. "The angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." But when man sins, it is not so. Wrath waits. God seems to slumber. Remedial processes are inaugurated and gradually developed. An atonement is revealed in glorious figure — ample, adequate, and free. This atonement, so far as God is concerned, is made over in unconditional offer to the whole human race without distinction. It is preached to every creature. If any creature perishes, therefore, he perishes because he wills to perish, not for the want of an atonement. For the rejected Cain as well as for the accepted Abel, a sin- offering, if he would have it, lay at the open door. Paradise redeemed was Cain's as well as Abel's, provided Cain were willing to receive it as the purchase of a Saviour's blood. But Cain was not willing to receive it. He would have it as a natural right, and not as a forfeited gratuity. He would earn it and claim it as a debt, not condescend to take it as an alms. In one word, Cain was not willing to be saved for nothing — and in this he stands the foremost type of reprobated man. Human nature is never willing to be saved for nothing — to return, a ragged prodigal, a naked pauper, to the banquet-house of love. Inasmuch, therefore, as God cannot put salvation at any lower terms, and inasmuch as the sinner will not have it on the lozvest terms, whose fault is it if the sinner dies, as Cain died, with- out salvation? Whose fault is it? Does God, who puts Himself to the pains — yes, and suffering too — of procuring free salvation ; does God, who invites, yea, beseeches and even commands the sinner to accept this free salvation; THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 219 does God, whose every word and whose every look is mercy, force this sinner to be damned? Did God force the reprobated Cain to reject the sin-offering; or the repro- bated Esau to sell his birthright; or the reprobated Judas to betray his Master? Who, in the light of God's infinite long-suffering toward these king-leaders in iniquity, would venture to assert the horrific blasphemy? Nay, my breth- ren, the fact is precisely the reverse. Every man, when he is tempted, "is drawn away of his own lust, and en- ticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." It is a man's own lust — his own self-generated, inexplicable, and ineradicable lust that damns him. Refusing to hear the voice of God, he deliberately damns himself. He hard- ens his own heart. He will not come to Christ that he may have life. Toward such a sinner God exercises not long-suffering simply, but much long suffering. He makes not one overture only, but ten thousand thousand overtures. He gives not one warning only, but ten thousand thousand warnings. He represents Himself as coming again and again, His arms loaded with blessings, His lips filled with free invita- tions, remonstrances, expostulations, and persuasions such as God alone is capable of. He says, "All day long have I stretched out my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people." One offer of a gratuitous salvation ought, to suffice for a perishing and helpless soul. It is said that when John Eliot preached his first sermon in the Indian language, those poor savages who had never before heard of their fallen and accursed state in Adam, and of the way of free, unmerited salvation through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, were so melted as to break out in bitter weep- ing and piercing cries, and ardent expressions of irre- pressible desire. It would seem as if it must be so at every presentation of the glorious Gospel. It would seem as if salvation for nothing could not remain at such a discount among utterly impotent and hopelessly ruined men. It would seem as if those who felt their feet slipping inch by inch into the tumbling billows of eternal fire would 220 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. not only be willing, but glad, to take life for a look at their crucified God. It remains that I should consider — III. The REASONS OF THE DIVINE FORBEARANCE. "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" One reason why God endures the reprobated wicked is, that in the day of the revelation of His glory He may the more lustriously display His wrath. He leaves them to fill up their sins, in order that wrath may come upon them to the uttermost. So it is said of the finally lost, that "they shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His in- dignation ; and be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." Since God has predicted that this shall be so, God has decreed that it shall be so; and that for His own glorv, that by the infliction of wrath it may be nroved that God is just as well as merciful — that He is holiness as well as love. But the text says to show, (evdei^adSat) to point out as on a blackboard. To display His wrath. If it be right to visit wrath, it certainly must be right to do so ofienly — to make a tremendous demonstration of it — a demon- stration worthy of the fixed and awe-struck gaze of a pre- served, redeemed, adoring universe ; and so it is said that the wicked lost shall be tormented "in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." But if it be right to inflict wrath openly — to lead sin- ners to a public execution — then it must be glorious to do so. For what it is right for God to do it is glorious for God to do. And if glorious, then worthy of all admira- tion. Accordingly we read, "After these things" — that is, the burning of the mystic Babylon, with its attendant hor- rors— "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia ; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God." "And again they said, Alleluia. And THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 221 her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia." "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." There is no question, but that one reason why God has determined to show His wrath on ungodly sinners is, that He may furnish the theme of an eternal song for His redeemed. "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance ; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." The explanation of this is found, not in the fact that holy beings are capable of taking pleasure in the suffering of their fellow-creatures, but in the fact that holy beings will have the same mind and spirit as has a holy God. Holy beings will rejoice in the overthrow of the malignant enemies of God. Holy beings will triumph in the triumphs of a holy God. Stand- ing upon the further shore of a gratuitous deliverance, they will raise, as Israel above the shipwrecked armament of Pharaoh, the song of Moses and the Lamb, saying, "I will sing unto the Lord: for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." A second reason of the divine forbearance is, that God, in the destruction of the wicked, may make known the cxhaitstless secrets of His pozver. He will let the sinner, like the deadly upas, grow until his loftly stature and his mighty girdage shall require the axe of Omnipotence itself to lay them low. Dear brethren, I can speak no longer on this stupendous theme. Those of us who have reached a comfortable as- surance of our election, through faith in Jesus' blood, will rejoice in the vision of these truths — with trembling it may be, but with rapture will we rejoice. Those who are per- suaded that as yet they have neither part nor lot in a gratuitous salvation will do well to cherish the slightest movement of God's Spirit in their hearts — will do well to realize the momentous truth that they are wholly at the mercy and disposal of a sovereign God — will do well to humble themselves beneath His sovereignity ; above all, and first of all, and inclusive of all, will do well to accept just now and here, a free salvation wholly through the righteous- 222 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. ness of Jesus. Since it is the command of God as well as His winning invitation, "Come; for all things are now ready." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Every man who hears the Gospel has a right to believe that he is personally called and, if called, he has a right to obey the call and, if he obeys it, his election is made sure. No man has a right to put himself among the reprobate and if, in the exercise of a sullen and diabolical Spirit, he does so, he will be found where he put himself and the blame will be only his own. No man can believe without the Holv Spirit? Well then let him throw himself upon the Spirit's power while in felt and self despairing helplessness he cries: "Lord I believe, heh Thou mine un- belief!" Now to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 223 WHAT GOD CANNOT DO : OR SAVED BY PROMISE. Titus i :2. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. The Gospel is a revelation of hope. Hope is the world's star — its one brightness, — since it is for the future and not the past, and not the present, that man exists. Even in this life, they who start without bright hopes and aspirations, might as well not start at all, fot every step will be a failure. It is, however, as the vista prolongs itself, that hope finds her proper sphere and dominion. St. Paul, in one place, says : "If in this life only we have hope we are most miserable." We are so because of the disappoint- ing and the transitory character of earthly hopes. The best good that man can obtain here, is but temporary and cannot descend with him into the grave. "A heavenly hope is all serene, But earthly hope, how bright soe'er Still fluctuates o'er this changing scene. As false and fleeting as 'tis fair." "In hope of eternal life !" — of conscious, active, happy, unending existence. That is indeed a world beyond the world — the world on which our thoughts must centre, even if we would make the present world of value. "The potent force of the world to come supplies us," says one, "with force for the accomplishment of the duties of this life. Here is a man who has a machine for the manufacture of hardware. He wants steam power to work this machine. An engineer puts up an engine in a shed at a distance. 'But,' says the other, T asked you to bring the power here to operate on my machine.' 224 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 'That is precisely,' he answers, 'what I have done. I put the steam engine off there. You have only to con- nect it by a band and your machine works as fast as you like. It is not necessary that I should put the boiler and the fire and the engine close to the work; just under your nose. Only connect the two and the one will op- erate on the other.' So God has been pleased to make our hopes and future the great engine wherewith the Christian man may work the machine of every day life, — for the band of faith connects the two and makes all the wheels of ordinary life revolve in rapid and regular motion." "Our greatest good and what we least can spare, Is hope — the last of all our evils, fear." "In hope of eternal life !" Life, to be eternal must be in God, — in reconciliation to God, — in union with God, and constant inflowing from God. As God is the author of all life, — As there was no life until He created it — and, as separation from God is the worst of all evils — eternal life must be ours only from God and on His conditions. — In other words, its founda- tion and guarantee must be God and His word. That brings us at once to the text. — "In hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Consider: I. The foundation of eternal hope — the character of God who cannot lie. II. Its guarantee or warrant — His promise. And : I. The foundation of eternal hope — It is not any creature, man or angel — not the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord — to whom the prayer is put up by so many. Salve Regina — Salve Spes nostra — "Save us O Queen — Save us our hope." Nor is the hope any creature good, or enjoyment — "If." says Job, "I have made gold my hope !" Nor is it any merit or worthiness, or righteousness we can attain — a hope like the spider's web spun from THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 225 ourselves — with no solidity or strength, or substance. "They weave the spider's web — their webs shall not be- come garments — neither shall they cover themselves with their works." The foundation — to last to eternity — must have been from eternity — where shall that be but in God? /;/ the immutability of God — that He cannot change. Creatures change — fortune perishes — our righteous- nesses turn to filthy rags. These are a foundation of water — of sifting, shifting sand, and so in every confi- dence outside "the Rock of Ages" — the immutable God. God is immutable in His being — His essence. His eter- nity obliges this, or rather, this obliges His eternity and lies back of all. For eternity respects duration, but im- mutability respects the very essence which endures. Back of all, then, God is unchangeable. This unchangeableness in God was represented by the ancients as a cube, or solid block of wood or metal, framed foursquare, where every side is of the same equality, so that, cast it which way you will, it will al- ways be the same because equal to itself in all its di- mensions. If there were any change in God, He would sometimes be what He zvas not, and would cease to be what He is — i. e., God. With Him, therefore, there can be neither variableness nor shadow of turning. The very name "Jehovah" in Hebrew, expresses this. It is always the same. It has no plural, no case endings, — nothing can be put to, or taken from the four letters of which it is composed. "I am Jehovah, I change not." Objection has been brought to this, from the "creation of the world." Philosophers have said that a creation in time involves a change in God But this is to confound change with manifestation. A sun shining into a house does not involve a change in the sun but only in his manifestation. The sun is precisely what it was, and so God. Neither in creation, nor in in- carnation, nor in what is expressed by His repenting, does He alter one atom. Creation is simplv an act of His in time. Incarnation is the assumption of our 226 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. nature with no variation in His own. His repenting is a change of attitude but always in the line of His own infallible purpose. Did God say He would destroy Nineveh? He did it. Forty, in the Bible means proba- tion— 40 days, a certain probation. After that proba- tion— Nineveh, going back to its wickedness — was de- stroyed. There is no such howling waste, as are those lonely mounds, anywhere. God is immutable in His essence, and, again, in His attributes — in His knowledge. He is omniscient — He knows no more now, than He has always known — He will learn nothing new, forever and ever. God is immutable in His wisdom. From all possible plans, He has, from eternity, chosen the best. Would you go to work at anything without a plan? So, "known unto God, are all His works from the beginning of the world." He knows them as certain because He has fixed them in His decree. God is immutable in His power. Alexander was pow- erful when he crossed the Granicus, but not when he lay in Babylon gasping for breath. God is the same in power. "He fainteth not, neither is weary" — "My coun- sel shall stand," he has said, "and I will do all My pleas- ure." "Once, twice have I heard this — that power be- longeth unto God." God is immutable in His justice — in His love — in His truth. Take any attribute and you may write on it. Semper idem — "always the same." That places the fact of the text in its strongest possi- ble light. The word "lie" here includes, bevond its ordi- nary meaning, the thought of any change, so that when we read that God cannot lie we understand bv it — not only, that He cannot sav what is untrue, but that — hav- ing said something which is true — He never changes from it, and does not, bv anv possibility, alter His mean- ing or retract His word. We can count on Him per- fectlv. utterlv. absolutelv. A lie means an inconsistencv — a contradiction — He cannot deny — arnesasthai — He can- not contradict Himself. God's immutabilitv in the text, is focalized to this point. His word cannot change — His threatenings can- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 227 not change — His promise cannot change. He cannot falsify, disappoint, delude, prevaricate, or deceive He is Ho Apseudes — the undeceiving God. GOD CANNOT LIE! He cannot falsify His ivord. He cannot depart from it, alter it, or break it. "Forever, O Lord. Thy word is settled in heaven." Forever, as well, is it settled in earth. "My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of My lips." "Every word of God is pure — as silver tried in a furnace of earth," — and the earth may make that furnace as hot as she pleases — pure, i. e., "unalloyed, in- adulterate" — tsurupa, smelted, refined — tried by being passed again and again through the fire. "Add thou not to His words lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar." "If any man shall take away from the words of this Book, God shall take away his part out of the Book of life and from the Holy City." There is no kind of question about it. The Bible is true. It is true in every statement It is true in every word. It is true in every letter. It is not only verbally inspired, but every penstroke on the original MS., was put there by God, and is kept there by God and will re- appear again — and again with all its original force and no criticism, and no readjustment and no redaction made by silly wise-acres can prevent it. It is astonishing what a sensation is caused every now and again by the outburst of some re-vamped infidelity. The old serpent has his successors who stand — as he stood, on tail, in points of interrogation. "Yea, hath God said?" Yea He hath said. There was the witty, sneering system of Voltaire who spawned the French Revolution. There was the vulgar profanity of Tom Paine. Then there was Bishop Colenso — then Robert- son Smith and so down to the feebler echoes upon our own shores, and in our own recent times. What is the result of it all? The Bible is better un- derstood— it is more highly venerated and prized — and. on the whole, it is more cordially received and practiced than it has ever been before. 228 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. One hundred and fifty years ago, infidels did not be- lieve there was any Nineveh. Then God uncovered the ruin of Koyunjik. They did not believe there was any Jonah, and lo ! and behold! a score of figures represent- ing the great preaching Fish-man, with the name Yones inscribed on them, came there to light. They did not believe there could have been any such fight as that be- tween Abraham and the four kings, or any four kings, — God came again and deciphered the cuneiform tablets and the names of Amraphel, King of Shinar; Arioch, King of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, and Tidal, King of Nations, are not only found on them, but the names of the kingdoms as well — tallying word for word with Gen. xivro,. About twenty years ago the assertion was made that Moses could not have written the laws of the Pentateuch — that they could not have been written be- fore the captivity, because in the barbaric — little better than stone age of Moses, there was no such thing as a code. Then, at the end of the year 1901, i. e., three years ago — when the critics had gotten their theory settled and were laughing old conservatives to scorn — among the ruins of Susa, Shushan the Palace, there was discovered a complete code of laws written on an enormous block of polished black marble. These are called "the Khammur-rabi code," and they date back to the time of the Exodus. When the discovery was made, what did the critics do. They wheeled around and said, "Moses stole his laws from Khammur-rabi," simply because they could not have it that God gave to Moses a law. But time fails me to rest on this point. The Bible is God in voice and God in print. It is God speaking and written. It not only contains His word, it is His word. It is net a lump of gold in a bushel of quartz, but it is all gold and nothing but gold — a word that cannot lie God cannot lie. He cannot change in His threatenings. God's word contains His law, which old divines used to style "the transcript of His perfections." But law is only law when it has sanctions. A command without a pen- alty attached were mere advice or persuasion. It be- comes something more than advice when it says : "Dis- obey me and suffer!" "The soul that sinneth, it shall THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 229 die." There is no law without penalty and the penalty quadrates with it and is as changeless as the law. If the law is unchangeable, and, if God has spoken it, it is — then the penalty is unchangeable, — then sin, in every case, must be followed by death. Then it is either "die sinner or die Jesus," and, if the sinner does not accept Christ to die for him, as his substitute, he dies for him- self, and there is no other way. It is useless to hope that, in spite of what He says, God will not do as He says. He will, to the uttermost. "Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be cut off, and that without remedy. The wicked shall be turned into hell." These shall go away into everlast- ing punishment. Some people refuse to believe in any hell. But blind- ing the eyes to it and denying it, does not make it less real. The suicide leaps from the miseries of this life into — what? "Into the fire that never can be quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." These are the solemn words of Him whose boundless compassion brought Him hither to save us, and they confirm the unchangeableness of the threaten- ings of God. "God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. Hath He said and shall He not do it? Hath He spoken and shall He not make it good?" God is immutable in His word and in His threaten- ings — He is also immutable in His promises. It is this as- pect of His unchangeableness that is insisted upon in the text — "In hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." God has seen fit to deal with men by promise, not by bargain, but promise. There was something like a bar- gain in Eden when God said, "Dress it and keep it — do, and you shall live." But that was not an eternal arrange- ment. It was said bv way of a test which could only break down. Back of Eden, and back of any temporal cove- nant, lay the eternal covenant in which God had prom- ised for Christ's sake, to save the people of Christ for whom He should make His soul an offering for sin. 230 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. The promise, then, was before creation. It is older than the universe. It is as ancient as is the Ancient of days. God's first utterance of any sort was a promise. God promised to save, for Christ's sake, who was to do everything for them, those who trusted in Christ, and that promise was made, says the text, "before the world began." Salvation, then, was suspended upon a simple promise to save, before the world began. God then proclaimed that He would save sinners for nothing, — simply because He was disposed to save them for nothing that they might owe it — never to anything in themselves or of themselves — never to anything done, or felt or labored by themselves — never to any merit, but to His mere mercy in Christ. "According to His mercy He saved .us." That promise can never be shaken — nor changed, nor can the condition be altered. We are saved by mere promise, or never at all. The promise is the word of God who cannot lie. Oth- ers who speak to us, may lie, — and we, credulous always in the evil direction, believe their lies. We believe the devil who is always cheating our hope as he cheated that of Adam in Eden. It is by lying that Satan now holds the world and maintains his influence and power over men. "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own — for he is a liar and the father of it." The same experience holds true of men. David said in his haste, "All men are liars." He went too far in that statement and had to correct himself in a measure, but still it remains that men will promise and break their promises — in other words, lie — and infamously lie — to the disappointment, loss, wreck, failure and destruction of others. "God who cannot lie!" There is no man of whom that can be said. There may be men who will not lie but there cannot be a man of whom it may be said. He cannot lie. For alas ! we all have the root of deceitful- ness in us and will prove false everywhere — in every trust — in every engagement — in every, the most solemn promise — however we may be bound by oath or legal THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 231 document — unless the grace of God help us, — to that de- gree it is true that "all men are liars." But God cannot lie. If you knew a man who could not lie, you would trust him without oath — without bond, and in spite of all counter testimonies, appearances and assertions. The very fact that he could not lie would, in itself, make him sure. That is what the text says of God. There is one thing and only one thing, He cannot do. He can do anything else but falsify — prove untrue to Himself — to His word. That is the foundation on which hope — eternal hope — hope of eternal life, has been built and established. God has promised to save to the uttermost for Christ's sake, and God cannot lie. "Firm as His throne His promise stands. And He can well secure What I've committed to His hands In the decisive hour." God has promised to receive, accept, welcome, own, justify, keep, persevere with, bring to Heaven, all who will take Him at His simple word — risk it — and rely upon it without after-thought or condition. "His every word of grace is strong As that which built the skies; The voice which rolls the stars along Speaks all the promises." And that brings us to the II. point. The guarantee,- the warrant of hope is simply God's promise. All that there is between us and perdi- tion— all that there is between us and heaven is the promise of God laid hold of by faith. Hope is made up of two things — desire and expecta- tion. Desire alone is not hope. A man might desire a crown, or a million of dollars without the slightest hope of getting either. Nor is expectation, by itself, hope. A man may expect punishment, calamity, death and not hope for these things but fear them greatly. But when 232 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. desire and expectation are united — when the man wishes a thing and has ground to believe he will get it — that constitutes hope, involving faith, — and, when it rests on God's word, it is styled "Good hope through grace" — "which hope we have," says the Apostle, "an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, and that entereth into that within the veil." The foundation of that hope is God who cannot lie. The guarantee of that hope is His promise. What se- cures it, then, is laying hold of the promise — in other words, a simple act of faith. The promise speaks out of the sky — or rather, out of God's word, and the soul responds by believing and rest- ing upon it. So Abraham, it is said, believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness — i. e., faith in the promise was just as good as if Abraham had had the most perfect possible righteousness. He had no right- eousness for, at the time, he was an uncircumcised, idolatrous man, but God spoke to him in Ur of the Chaldees and said, "I will give thee a land — an eternal and blissful inheritance — I will bless thee in Christ." And Abraham simply believed and followed God out and took possession of the inheritance. The Law was given to the descendants of Abraham later, at Sinai, but that had nothing to do with the founda- tion before God on which they stood. St. Paul argues this in the Galatians, — "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made — to his seed which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant which was confirmed before, by God, in Christ, the law, which was 450 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. For, if the inheritance comes by the law, it is no longer by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. If you tell a man, you will give him a farm, and afterward come and tell him he must work for it, and pay by installments, then, you have changed the condi- tion— you have broken your word. It is no longer a simple out and out gift. "What, then, is the good of the law?" asks St Paul. "It was added," he answers, "because of transgressions — that men might see and realize they never could keep THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 233 it — and give up trying, and cast themselves on the prom- ise. It is thus that the law becomes our teacher, or schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified simply, only, out and out, by faith." What saves, then, is God Himself — His undeceiving word His simple promise in Christ. My business, and the whole of my business, is to trust in that promise. Just as if a man, listening to a will, hears that he gets a legacy of $20,000. That is all. He does not work for it. He does not try to make it more substantial or more certain — He gets it. He believes it is his. That is all. I have read the story of a poor hungry Indian, who came to a Western village and begged for something to eat. A little skin bag hung by a ribbon round his neck. There was supposed to be a charm in it. "Somebody had given it to him," he said, "in his youth, and had told him it would keep him from want all his life." A white man saw that it had writing upon it, and read it to him It was a pension paper from the United States Government entitling him to a pension for life and was signed George Washington. That Indian had wandered around all his life — a poor, wretched, half starved creature — working for an exist- ence, begging for an existence — worrying about how he should live and what would become of him — and, all the while, he had a writing that would have secured for him comfort and happiness. He did not realize what had been true and near him all his life— in his hand so to say — could he only have acted upon it by faith. The promises of God shine like stars. So God put it to Abraham, — "Look at the stars! You did not make them. You cannot alter them. You cannot aid them, or add to them : Simply believe in them. So shall thv seed be." The warrant for believing lies in the promise itself. The promise brings its own warrant. The promise says, "You may;" the promise says "you must;" the promise says "You are shut up to me !" And I ! I say, "Lord, I be- lieve." 234 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Faith is taking God at His word — His undeceiving word, and trusting Jesus Christ as my Saviour, although I am utterly unfit and unworthy of His regard. Faith is a sinner trusting. An idolatrous Abram, — not a saint — not a regenerated man, — not a penitent trusting man but a sinner, and in his sinnership, trusting to be saved on another's account. My warrant, then, is the promise. The promise puts out its hand and takes hold of me — bad as I am. It asks nothing of me — nothing done — nothing felt — it pledges after-work — after-feeling. It says, "I will take care of all that. I will work in you to will and to do." An electrical machine stands before you. You take the balls in your hands and are thrilled by the current. You do not thrill yourself. You take hold of the handles. The machine does the work. We are shut up to the promise. That, or nothing That, or a lost soul. God says, "I have promised, do you hear? Sooner than break my promise I will give my own Son to die. What is your secret and most inner hope, my brother? A man's secret hope is a truer test of his condition than any character, or acts he may perform. If your hope is in the promise of God, it must be well with you — You are in the same boat with Abraham, anchored to the same Rock of Ages. Notice — We are not saved in part by ourselves, and in part by the promise of God. We must swing off on the promise. It is not because I deserve anything, but be- cause God has freely promised it in Christ, therefore, I shall receive it. There is the reason and ground of our hope. Nor, in believing, am I to look at anything that shall result so far as I am concerned — that I shall be this, or that — or feel this or that — or do this or that. I am to look with fixed and steady gaze — as at a star, at this one great fact — God promises to save me. He promises to take care of my future, — and I risk it on His word. I swing off on that. I hang upon if I die for it, but hang- ing on it, I can never die." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 235 THE ATONEMENT. 2 Cor. v :2i. "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." There are two classes of objectors to orthodox truth. One we may call the ingenuous and honest ; they do not mean to go wrong, but they are ignorant ; they cannot quite see how this thing, that thing, and the other, are consistent ; they do not find fault with these things ; — they want to see through them. They believe that God can explain Himself; they are in sympathy with God ; they wait upon Him ; they pray over their difficulties; they ask God for light, and the result is that they soon emerge into a wide and wealthy place — the sweep of their horizon well defined — the sky above them cloudless. To this class of objectors let us say, Dear brethren, we sympathize with you. So far you are right, and you will come out right. Follow after God ; grapple your difficulties, face them, confront them with the Scripture. Then when you get a point, keep it ; do not play at shuttlecock. Re- member what St. Paul says to the Philippians — "Brethren, whereto we have already attained, let us square ourselves by it" — Groixeiv xavovi — let us keep up to the mark, let us be fixed in our conviction ; and, "if in anything ye be other- wise minded," doubtful, not clear as yet, "God will reveal even this unto you." The second class of objectors is composed of the disin- genuous, and the dishonest. They are not right within. They are not for God and for the truth, let it cut how it may. They are not manly. They do not bare their breasts to the knife. They do not say "Search me O God, and see and lead me in the way everlasting." They do not make their objections as led by the Spirit, and as depending on the Spirit, but they make them in order to self-justification. Their object is not to vindicate God, but to apologize for themselves. It is with them, self, self, self, all the way through. 236 THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. How does this come about? How does it occur that many professors of religion, many, many in this evil day are in this second class? There are several reasons, but they all resolve themselves into one — the fallacy of living on an old experience. If you talk with certain professors of religion, you always find them going back to a point in their history which they call their conversion. On this they stake everything. They take it for granted that their conversion was right, and therefore they are right. But what was the conversion? In nine cases out of ten a mere spasm, a convulsion of the un- regenerate moral nature — a mixture of conviction, passion, and self-righteous resolution — the shudder of a serpent who is trying to right himself by straight lines. That is all. Now think for a moment of the straight lines that radiate from God. Those straight lines never cross nor cut. Sup- pose you, my brother, are right — a little straight line — then you will live in God's straight line and no other can cut you. But suppose you are wrong, a crooked line, a serpent — for the serpent is the emblem of the crooked line in the Scripture — then the straight lines must cut you, and the more you twist, the more they cut you, until you drop in inch pieces through the si f tings of the pure white light of God. My brother, if you are resting on a false experience, you cannot be easy or happy under God's truth. In spite of yourself, you will doubt and you will suggest doubt — you will question and criticize and cavil. The only thing for you is to get rid of that experience — to sponge it from your record — to forget you ever had it, and to begin with Christ. Dead men do not stir. If ever you see yourself dead you will stop talking about experience. What experience can a corpse have? If once you see that Christ saves of mere mercv — instantly saves you — saves you not for your emotions but in spite of your emotions — in spite of the shal- low deceitfulness of your tears — that will end it. You will no longer hope, but trusting in Christ you will know. Self will drop out, and Christ will take the place of experience. From that time you will live in the present and no longer in the past. No longer will you inquire what was true or un- true yesterday, or yesterday a week, or yesterday a twelve- month. Forgetting the things that are behind, you will live where Paul lived — in God's golden, everlasting now — "the THE DOCTRIXRS OF GRACE. 237 life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." But why has not God made things so clear that men cannot object? For several reasons. 1. The nature of truth, of all truth, exposes it to objec- tion. Truth always involves more than appears on the sur- face. The Indian savage who lies upon his back beneath the starlit heavens fancies that the sky above him is a broad blue blanket, and those stars, gilt spangles loosely scattered over it. To La Place or Herschel the same heavens are depths of infinite space crowded with rolling worlds, each one of which describes an exact mathematical circle — each one of which is subordinate — satellite to planet, planet to sun, and sun to far-binding Pleiad. Now to this scheme of La Place and Herschel. the savage would have many objections. In contrast with his first untutored impression, how would it be possible for him to prefer the slow results of calculation and the minute reports which come to him through the lenses of the telescope? Precisely so is it with the Bible, that heaven of the moral universe. Like the savage, men look upon its statements as a congeries of isolated truths, confused, conflicting, con- tradictory, scattered over the goo pages less or more of this book. The idea that there is a system here — that that sys- tem lies open to investigation — that it can be measured in all its expanses and fixed in all its details, and that in the line of patient discovery each truth falls into place and marches in the orbit of undeviating purpose around the cen- tral and all-dominating thought of God, is an idea which isrnorant. hasty and unthoughtful men have overlooked, and vet. if God be like Himself, and if the God of the universe be the God of the Bible, what other thin? can be? You must either consent to investigate — to use the mind that God has given you upon the things of God — patiently to learn in a "comparison of spiritual things with spiritual." or else, mv brother, like the untutored savage, your inde- pendent and undisciplined free thought will check you at the threshold of moral advancement and bar you from the knowledge of what God is forever. But, 2. The nature of fallen man prevents God from making things so clear to him that he cannot object. 238 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. The nature of fallen man is opposed to God ; and that opposition lies in the mind to begin with. It is the carnal mind that is enmity against God. Do you know anything from experience of the difficulty of stating yourself to men who dislike you, who have prejudged you and whose inter- est it is to make you out wrong? That is the difficulty, on an infinite scale, which God has to contend with. God is right, and He must put Himself right. But that puts the sinner wrong and then the sinner must justify himself. It has been truly said to be "a law of man's intelligent nature that when accused of wrong either by conscience or by some other agent, he must either confess or justify himself." The latter is the sinner's alternative. This is the reason why he has so many objections and why he flies from one to another, as if the aggregate of his objections would make up for the intrinsic weakness of each. Alas ! behind all this dishonesty, behind all this evasion there is that which nothing but the touch and the renewal of the Holy Ghost can cure — the inveterate opposition of the man to God. All objections to the Christian system are, in the last anal- ysis, objections to the doctrine of vicarious atonement. Hence the pertinency of the question, "What think ye of Christ?" What think ye of His Deity? What think ye of His dying? What think ye of the nature and the limitations of His work? "What think ye of Christ? is the test To try both your state and your scheme ; You cannot be right in the rest Ubless you think rightly of Him." This being the case, the Holy Spirit, in removing a sin- ner's objections — in reducing him from a state of combative- ness to one of willing reception — aims from first to last, at setting Christ before him. "Casting down imaginations," says the apostle, "and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." My brother, my sister, what you want is the obedience of Christ — the obedi- ence of which Christ is the source and object — the obedience which comes from Christ and terminates on Christ. Christ is the end of nature's quest and questionings— the all-aton- ing Christ. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 239 Let us, then, for a few moments, fix our eyes on Christ — on Christ in His most central and soul-saving aspect — on Christ exemplifying these three things: I. The Truth of the Atonement. II. Its Holiness. III. Its Saving Power. I. The Truth of the Atonement — what it is not, what it is — and, First. It is not what is called Humanitarian-ism — that Christ was a good Man, divine in some sense, who appeared among us as an example, to show us how to be holy ; so that if we follow Him and do the best we can, we shall be saved. That this is not what the Bible means by the cross is evi- dent— (1). From the fact that it leaves the question of past sin untouched. We know that Lady Macbeth, in utterance of the necessity of nature, cries — "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?" It is a question of washing away blood which has already stained. (2.) This notion is untrue because it mocks us. To pre- sent a faultless model of perfection to a fallen creature help- lessly depraved — to say to him, "Be like this," "Do like this," is to make ghastly sport of his misery. (3.) The life of the Lord Jesus Christ down here was a life of suffering unto death. What sort of an example does that afford to you and to me who wish to escape death ? What sort of an example to a lost sinner is a crucifix? (4.) An atonement in which we follow Christ and do the best we can, is an atonement in which man and not Christ is the Atoner. We follow Christ ! At what distance ? At our own distance. Then the distance mav widen — the in- terval may stretch, until at last Christ minified to a mere speck, a point upon the dim horizon, passes out and vanishes clean from His own atonement and leaves behind just this — "Man, woman, do the best you can, or try to do it, or do something, and vou shall be saved." 240 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Second. The Atonement is not a device of general and governmental benevolence — a mere theatrical display cal- culated to make an impression on the universe, and so to prevent the spread of sin, bring sinners to repentance, and secure harmony and happiness upon the largest scale. It is well known that this has been a popular and a widespread representation : it is an untrue representa- tion, however, because it is based on the following untrue assumptions. (i.) That sin does not deserve to be punished be- cause it is sin, but only because of its consequences. (2.) That there is no such thing as an eternal justice in God striking down upon sin : God is breadth only, — love, an horizontal line and not a cross — that there is no perpendicular in Him. "Justice," say the teachers of our modern liberalistic thought, "is benevolence guided by wisdom" ; in other words, it is a general good will and good nature in God which keeps up a government in or- der to the happiness of His creatures. God, then, exists for His creatures ; He is not His own highest end. And God is righteous not because His holy nature compels Him to be, but because the interests of a governmental policy demand it. The theory stript of its plausibilities, and stated in broad terms and carried to its logical results, is this: Happiness is the end of creation — in order to secure happi- ness there must be righteousness — righteousness, therefore, is a means to an end. In other words, virtue is simply expediency, and the question of right and wrong is simply a question of profit or loss. Such, squarely stated, is the modern and popular notion of the Atonement — a notion born of phdosoohv and not of Christ — a notion without a word of Scripture to support it — a notion utterly repuennnt to the sentiments of everv honest heart — a way since sin is in the universe, not of cominrr straight out and dealings with sin ; but of getting around it. A wav of doing something:, no one knows what, but something of which the cross is a voucher, bv which the machinerv of the universe is kept running, its ruin is averted and a door is opened; no one knows exactly THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 241 where, and no one knows exactly on what conditions, to God. Before dismissing this theory of the Atonement it is per- tinent to add these two remarks: In the first place this theory goes far, and more than far to explain the perolexity of the masses under certain modern sermons. Many men and many Christians complain that they cannot understand what is said — that they cannot take it away. Thev think the fault is in themselves, their ignorance, their obtuseness, but it is not so. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. The Gospel is a straight line, and anybody can understand a straight line. The fault, in these cases, is not so much with the people as with the pulpit. It is because the preacher is muddled himself. It is because he is floundering in a net- work of moral absurdities which have no coherence, no beginning, nor middle nor end. It is because he is trying to preach a philosophy which is not gospel — which is any- thing but the gospel, and which gives an open contradic- tion to the Bible, and to common sense, and God. Another remark proper at this point is this — The dishon- esty now prevalent in our churches, the moral obliquity, the squint in the eyes, common to so many professors of re- ligion, is chargeable to this false theory of the atonement. Men listen to the preaching and they get a notion that the universe is a machine — that God is running it, and that He is behind pulling wires. What is the inference from this? Is it not that they too may pull wires? Men listen to the preaching and they get the notion that salvation is a piece of diplomacy. God is a diplomat, why should not they be diplomats? God's virtue is "what is expedient;" why should not their virtue be "what is expedient?" With God the end covers the crookedness of the means, why with them should not the end cover the crookedness of the means ? Nothing is more certain than this, that men will be politic so long as they believe in a politic God. Third. — Having thus cleared the ground before us — hav- ing stated what the atonement is not, it will not be difficult now to state what it is. All truth is quickly stated, and this truth lies in one word, substitution. It is put with all 242 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. possible plainness in the parallel, the sublime equation of 2 Cor. v:2i, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us" — identified Him with it so as to make Him wholly chargeable therewith — "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him," — that we might be identified and wholly chargeable with righteousness. The doctrine stated in contrast for distinctness is this, (i.) Sin, because it is sin, must be punished. (a) (2.) Justice, because it is justice, must punish sin.(b) (3.) If sin is on the sinner, then justice must strike through both sin and the sinner who carries it. (r) (4.) If the sin of the believing sinner is taken from his shoulders and laid upon the Son of God, then justice, still following after the sin, must strike through the sin and the person of the Son of God now underneath it. (d) (5). When justice once strikes the Son of God, justice ex- hausts itself. Sin is amerced in an Infinite Object, (e). (6). Not only is this true, but more — not only does justice exhaust itself, but striking an Infinite Object, justice meets a rebound, is reflected back upon God ,and now God must re- ward Christ, as the substitute, for His overplusage of infi- nite merits. (/). Therefore, (a). Rom. vi :23 : The wages of sin, the thing due to it, which must be paid, is death. (b). Gen. xviii :25 : "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right f" Pay sin what is due to it? (c). Ezek. xviii :2o: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Ex. xxxiv :7 : "He will by no means clear the guilty." (d). Isa. liii :S : "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." (e). Rom. viii 13 : "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Zech. xiii:7: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord." But this Man after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for a finality, sat down on the right of God, Heb. x:i2. For by one offering He hath perfected forever His saints. Heb. x:i4. (/). Isa. xl:io, lxii:ii: "His reward is with Him, and His recompense (see margin) before Him." Isa. Iiii : 1 2 : "Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great," &c. Phil, ii :g : "Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him," &c. Heb. ii :p : "Crowned Him with glory and honor." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 243 (7). The moment the believing sinner accepts Christ as his substitute, he finds himself not only freed from his sin, but re-carded. He gets all heaven because of the glory and merits of Christ, (g) The Atonement, then, which we preach is one of abso- lute exchange. (h) It is that Christ took our place literally, in order that we might take His place literally — that God regarded and treated Christ as the sinner and that He re- gards and treats the believing sinner as Christ. (i) From the moment we believe, God looks upon us as if we were Christ. (;) He takes it as if Christ's atonement had been our atonement, and as if Christ's life had been our life and He beholds, accepts, blesses and rewards as though all Christ was and did had been ours.(fc) Perhaps an illustration here may serve to put the fact in clearer light. Near the village of Portage, on the Genesee river, there is a bridge. This bridge spans a chasm of six hundred feet, and is entirely constructed of timbers. These timbers are so placed that any single one may be removed without interfering with the others, and so, as timbers rot, they are replaced, and the bridge itself is rendered perpetual. Now, suppose a rotten timber somewhere in the Portage bridge, — the workmen are called together and that timber is taken out and a sound timber is put in its place. What part, after that, does the rotten timber play in sustaining the bridge? What is it that sustains the bridge now? The sound timber — the substitute. The rotten timber lies there, on the muddy bank of the river. It is wholly thrown out. Now that will do as a representation of the sinner, and the bridge of Adam's broken covenant of works. The sin- ner is a rotten timber. He is wholly worthless. God comes (#)• John xvii:22: "The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them." Rom. v:i7: "Shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ." (h). 1 Pet. Hi: 18: "For Christ also hath suffered, the Just for {vitip, instead of) the unjust, to bring us to God." (i). 2 Cor. v:2i: "He hath made Him to be sin for us," &c. (/). 1 John iv.17: "As He is so are we in this world." John xvii :23 ; i Cor. xii :i2 ; Eph. v .30. (k). Rom. v:io. "Justified by His blood; saved by His life." Rom. v:2i: "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord," 244 THE DOCTRIXES OF GRACE. along and throws him out. He supersedes him. He puts Girist in his place. He lays on Christ the weight of the bridge of salvation, and Christ alone sustains it. Your good works, my brother, have nothing more to do with your jutification before God than the worthless, rotten timber lying on the mudflats of the Genesee has to do with the complete and colossal structure which bridges its banks. We then are saved, straight through eternity, by what the Son of God has done in our place. "By Him all that believe are justified from all tilings." Other considerations have nothing to do with it. It matters nothing what we have been, what we are, or what we shall be. From the moment we believe on Christ, we are forever, in God's sight, as Christ. Of course it is involved in this that men are saved, not by preparing first, that is by repenting, and praying, and read- ing the Bible, and then trusting Christ ; nor by the con- verse of this, that is by trusting Christ first and then prepar- ing something — repentance, reformation, good works — which God will accept : but that sinners are saved irrespective of tt-hat they are — how they feel — what they have done — what they hope to do — by trusting on Christ and that only. That Christ, and Christ alone, stands between any sinner and the Lake of Fire, and that the instant Christ is seen and rested on, the soul's eternity, by God's free promise, and from regard to what the Substitute has done, is fixed. Such is the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement, a doctrine which, for grandeur, for simplicity, and comprehensiveness, stands peerless and alone — God's thought in felt, in ac- knowledged, in adorable contrast to all creature philoso- phies— God's thought which solves all problems and allays all apprehensions and. beyond all power of tongue to tell it. satisfies the heart. But II. Is it a holv doctrine? Objection has been brought against it. It has been said that such an exchange as this, in which the innocent is made to suffer for the guilty, is un- just; that it is exceptional, arbitrary, contrary to all pro- cesses of human law ; that it is at variance with the moral feelings of mankind, and that it tends to immorality. To this objection, so succinctly stated, it is easy to reply. THE DOCTRIXES OF GRACE. 245 1. So far from being exceptional, the principle of repre- sentation runs through the universe. It is the principle on which the world is built. When a father commits a crime his whole family sink in the social scale, though innocent. When a father is lifted to office or to honor his whole family are lifted without merit of their own. These ex- amples go to prove that so far from being exceptional, the scheme on which the Lord Jesus Christ acts as agent, or trustee, or substitute of His people is congruous not only with the whole Scriptural theology, but with what we around us. and with the very nature of things. If we fell by Adam's sin without having a hand in it, why may we not be raised again by Christ's righteousness without having any righteousness of our own ? But. 2. The substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ is not arbi- trary. He was not forced to suffer. He was not dragged an unwilling victim to the altar, and there, in spite of all His pleadings, and of all His protestations, offered up. On the contrary, nothing was ever so voluntary as the death of Christ — "I delight to do Thy will" — "How am I strai:. until it be accomplished?" He loved us and gave Himself for us. Volenti nulla fit injuria. He is not wronged who gives his free consent. Christ was master of His own life as Lord of all. He had power to lay it down and to take it up again, and in this supreme devotement the Blessed Trinity concurred. 3. The substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed contrary to our processes of law, but not because it contra- venes them ; it rises above and pas^es beyond their finite limitations. That is all. It is readily admitted that no human justice could hang one man because another man had committed murder; but what to human justice, ham- pered by conditions, is impossible, is possible with God. One thing : human justice has no power over life ; the State is not absolute, but God is. The disposal of life, which is not man's prerogative, belongs to God. Another thing: Under a human government, no one has a right, even voluntarily, to give up his life under law for another ; for man has not power over his own life when it comes to justice, but Christ had power over His. Once more : Under a human government, if one dies for 246 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. another, one life is lost. The victim perishes, and there is no surplus gain to the universe. But, in the glorious Atone- ment, no life is lost, no victim perishes, for Christ who goes down into the grave rises again triumphant — "dieth no more" — death hath no more dominion over Him. 4. The principle of substitution, so far from being at variance with the feelings of a holy and a humble heart, is, of all principles that which such a heart must welcome as the only possible extrication from the agonies of conviction. ''The soul that sinneth, it shall die!" Has God said it? Then it must be. Then the soul must die, either in its separate personality, or in the Larger Personality which covers it — either in itself, or in the Head of the great family to which, believing, it belongs. Amid the growing light, this sun-like truth stands clear, Die the sinner must, or Jesus! 5. The doctrine of Substitution does not tend to immor- ality. Objection has sometimes been expressed like this — "If I understand it, I, by trusting, though the worst and most abandoned sinner out of hell, am saved — saved in a clock-tick — saved as truly and as certainly as Paul himself, who is in glory. If I understand it, the whole question of my destiny is settled, over and done, the moment I con- sent to believe ! Now, I am surprised at this doctrine. It takes away my breath. I am afraid of it. It seems to me, if I knew that my eternity were settled, I should run straight into excess — I should argue "It makes no difference — I am saved anyhow — a little sin more or less will not count." The answer to this objection is that it is the result 01 a truth but half apprehended. The sinner who makes it is like a man who is looking at one arm of a walking-beam, he does not know how the arm on the other side works. It is a mistake to suppose that settling things upon a righteous basis tends to laxity. The fact is just the reverse. Take an illustration from the angels. Their destiny is settled and has been settled for ages. In all heaven there is not a doubt. No angel ever doubts his eternal salvation ; but that does not tend to make angels immoral. Take an illustration from the case of a wife. Will any one say that for a woman to know she is married, and fixed by a permanent tie, tends to make her immoral? Does not every one know that the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 247 possibility of divorce entertained, makes people immoral — that doubt in this thing, is its death? Does not every one know that the strongest bond of all social life and the surest defence of all social honor is the fiat "whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder?" But argue the question a moment, along the line of its merits. (1.) To trust in Christ is to obey God. "This is His com- mandment that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." Without faith it is impossible to please Him; hence men must be brought to the obedience of faith. When they believe, for the first time in their lives, they begin to obey. But, does beginning to obey God tend to make men immoral ? (2.) To trust Christ is to draw near to Christ; but how can that make men immoral? Faith is nothing but coming to Christ under the attractions of a Divine, unspeakable, all holy, all compelling love. It is the rebound of gratitude in us towards Him who died for us. "To Whom coming as to a Living Stone." Coming, coming, always coming — how can that make men immoral? (3.) To trust Christ is to yield to the Spirit of God. For the first time in your life, instead of resisting, you yield. What is the result? You keep yielding. More and more you give yourself up to the Spirit's control. You are taught by the Spirit. You are led by the Spirit. You are strength- ened by the Spirit. You are filled with the Spirit. You are born again of the Spirit. How can that make you im- moral ? A man once said to Mr. Spurgeon "If I believed as you do, in a finished atonement, I would live as I liked — the thing being settled, I would enjoy the pleasures of sin." "Yes, said Mr. Spurgeon, you would do so because you are yet an unregenerated man. If you had the faith of God's elect you would live for Him who had saved you." But finally, to end discussion by an ultimate appeal, the question whether Substitution is a holy doctrine, is the question, whether the Bible, which proclaims it, is a holy book. It will be noticed that not one of the objections canvassed is brought forward from the Scripture. They 248 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. are all of them objections, speculations, reasonings and cavils of the carnal heart. To confute the Scripture, men must bring forward Scripture. Until they do this, the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement will stand. It will stand because the Bible teaches it ; because what the Bible teaches, God teaches ; and because what God teaches must eternally be true. III. Is this doctrine saving? God says so. Millions in the past have proved it. Millions in the present are em- barked upon it. You yourself have known many who have died trusting it. Not one of all these has it failed. It will not fail you. Try it, my brother. You never have tried it. You never have dropped yourself a dead weight on the hands of Christ and gone away believing that salva- tion was settled. You never have done this, and yet this is the point, the single point of the Gospel. "He that be- lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life !" THE DOCTRIXES OF GRACE. 249 Imputation. ADAM AXD CHRIST. Rom. v:i9. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made right-. What has Adam's sin to do with mine? Do I say, "Noth- ing— I have enough to do to take care of myself?" Then let me consider. If I have to take care of myself, I have to saze myself. But I cannot save myself, therefore, I am thrown back on Another. That shows me that I am not independent, but dependent on some one — on some thing outside of myself for a happy destiny. That brings in Christ and Christ brings in Adam. The Principle of representation lies at the basis of all religion. This principle wrecked us — this principle will have to rescue us. That is the thought, on the expansion of which I wish to fix your attention to-day. Two things ; if we learn them, will teach us the deepest practical wisdom — Sin and Grace. Xo one ever measured either of them, except One, and He. when He measured them was in a bloody sweat and poured out His soul unto death, — George Herbert quaintly says : "Philosophers have measured mountains Fathomed the depths of Seas, of States, of Kings, Walked with a Staff to heaven — and traced fountains, But there are two vast specious things The which to measure it doth more behove ; Yet few there are that sound them, — Six and Love." I. Sin : Sin came into this world, according to the Apostle, by Adam, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men for that all men sinned." 250 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. In this doctrine of St. Paul the whole world has con- curred. It is the general and unquestioned conviction of men that they are sinful, and therefore guilty, and that this sinfulness and guilt are a contradiction to pure being, and a defect and calamity, involving misery here and misery hereafter. All men do not see this thus clearly. The darker and more degraded the heathenism of men — the farther they have wandered from the central light of revelation, the less clear has been their knowledge and their conviction upon this subject, — but no race or individual of men has ever existed without the consciousness of being fallen — abnormal, impure, wicked and therefore liable to just and condign punishment : sin is a fact so patent, and sinfulness a condi- tion so felt that the missionary to benighted lands requires to prove nothing — to enter upon no elaborate argument. His way is already prepared and he has only to appeal to conscience, and say — "Sinner!" to awaken the echo of the response — "I am guilty!" It is a fallen world. Death is in it. Aversion to God and holiness is in it. Lust and crime are in it. Misery is in it. Now it is evident to the most opaque intelligence that this is not only a contradiction, but the precise contradic- tion, opposite, and contrast to a perfect state of existence and being. If any man should dare to assert that this world is a heaven — meaning coolly and deliberately to as- sert a fact, he would be regarded as a fit candidate for the Insane Asylum. This world is not a heaven. It is not the perfect abode of perfect creatures. It is imperfect, marred and blighted. And those who live here are sad and suffering inhabitants of a dilapidated habitation. Is it not so? Is death in heaven? Are there grave diggers and funeral processions there? Are there black draperies and angels wearing widows' weeds there? Is there hatred of God and weariness of His service and every sort of excuse for evading it there ? Do lust and theft reign there, and cruelty and crime and outrage as — when law does not restrain them — they do on this planet? Are sickness, pain, loss, injury, agony, torture household words in heaven ? THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 251 Who does not know they are not? Who needs even a Bible to give him the innate recognition of the fact that these things are not perfection — but the opposite and the intense opposite of perfection? And who is so blind as not to discover that these things are, and must be, the result of a break — a collapse — a fall somewhere from what must have been the normal condition of a creature existence? The idea of God is innate. It is not discovered. It is not taught. It is in us — part of our being — our creature- hood. But "God" means "good," "perfect," "holy." What God does, then, must be good, perfect, holy — what God makes must be good, perfect, holy. Then when God made man, He must have made him good, perfect, holy. All this, we get from instinct — from reason — from what we call Natu- ral religion. Then, when we come to the Bible — which is God speaking to us, and imparting information to us — we find the Bible running along the same lines and shedding light on every step of the logic. The Bible says that heaven is perfection — no death there — no sickness — no tears — no sorrow — no sin. Abso- lute blessedness, because absolute conformity to and com- munion with God. The Bible says that this world, at first, was a miniature heaven. It was so before Satan fell down into it and filled it with monsters and made it without form and void. It was so, afterward when reconstructed — when Adam was placed in Eden, the picture of heaven — himself the Image and likeness of God. The Bible tells us that Adam, — being made a perfect creature, and left under light and law to the freedom of his own will — instead of running in the current of that holy will — deliberately reversed himself. Nothing was taken from him — no force was applied to him. He was not de- serted— he was not abandoned — no influence of God's Spirit was taken from him. He simply — tempted to do it — did himself an outrage. In the presence of a Command- ment which his nature inclined him to obey, he committed a sin against his nature — he reversed himself — 'threw his whole constitution into convulsion, disorder — a chaos, and 252 THE DOCTRINES OE GRACE. opened the outlet of a ruin which has engulfed his race — so that, begetting sons — as we read in Gen. v, in his "own likeness" — no longer in God's likeness — men come into the world as fallen as Adam and under his curse. We are fallen then because Adam fell. In the 3rd Chap- ter of Genesis Adam is presented as a Public Person — the human race, as a whole, being involved in the transactions there recorded. This appears : 1. Because his name is generic — Adam is the Hebrew for "man," and signifies red earth or dust — it is the race name as well as his name. 2. All his posterity are equally involved in the sentence — the pain of childbirth — the curse of the ground — the obliga- tion to live by toil and sweat — and physical death. 3. All his posterity have an equal interest in the promise of the woman's seed which was then graciously made to Adam. He therefore was our Federal Head — i. e., he stood for us — to transact for us, so that — if he obeyed — we should all be holy creatures — confirmed, as he would have been, in holiness, — and, so, that — if he disobeyed, and ruined him- self— his probation and ours would be closed and we ruined with him. Adam's sin, then, was imputed to us. 1. That does not mean that God says we ate the apple. 2. Nor does it mean that Adam's sinful disposition or character is transferred to us leaving him holy — or that by his corruption we are corrupted while yet we are holy. The moral character of one man cannot thus be transferred to another. When, in the Scripture, it is said that our sins are imputed to Christ, it is not meant that Christ is cor- rupted by the infusion of our corruption into His holy nature, — and, when Christ's righteousness is said to be imputed to a believer, it is not meant that the believer is thus made as holy in himself as Christ is. 3. Nor, — on the other hand — does "to impute" mean that the thing imputed becomes the mere occasion of certain good or evil consequences — as if Adam's sin were the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 253 occasion of our misery — just as the goodness of Joseph was the occasion of Pharaoh's kindness to Jacob. But — the precise thing meant is that the thing imputed becomes the judicial ground of the bestowal of reward, or of the infliction of penalty. On the account of Christ's obedience we have what Christ earned — heaven. On account of Adam's disobedience we have what Adam earned — his wages, death. When it is said that the sin of Adam is imputed to us, it is not meant that the fearful consequences of that sin are mere calamities, or accidents, or sovereign inflictions, but that they are punishments indicted — because of what Adam did — by the just judgment of God. Men therefore stood their probation in Adam. As he sinned, his posterity comes into the world in a state of sin and condemnation. They are, by nature — the "children of wrath," the evils which they suffer, are not arbitrary impositions — nor merely, natural consequences — they are judicial inflictions — His sin made them sinners. The loss of original righteousness and death spiritual and temporal under which they commence their existence are the penalty of Adam's sin. God when he created Adam, entered into a covenant with him for his posterity. Adam knew this, St Paul says he was not deceived — He knew that he was acting for unborn generations when it was said to him "In the day that thou eatest thereof — thou man mon niD dying shalt die — shalt continue to die, thy race shall die. Adam deliberately committed the sin — assuming the re- sponsibility. God then imputed the sin to us — in the sense of charging it on our whole race represented in their first father — making it the legal and judicial ground of our condem- nation— so that we die. "Adam the sinner — at his fall, Death like a conqueror seized us all, A thousand new born babes are dead, By fatal union with their head," 254 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Proof of the Doctrine. The Scriptual proof of this doctrine runs through the entire passage of which our text forms a part — "By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." "Through the offence of one many be dead." "The judgment was by one to condemnation." "By one man's offence death reigned by one." "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." As, by one man's disobedience many were made sinners — so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." In the last statement which embraces our text the parallel of Adam and Christ as heads and representatives — each of his own — one of the natural and the other of the spiritual race, is brought so vividly into light that we seem to see the whole human family divided between them and eclipsed in their shadows — as if there were only two, and all other men were either annihilated in their presence, or absorbed in their persons. Let us now approach, with the profoundest reverence, the question of the propriety of a constitution like this — "a constitution which lies," as Dr. John Owen has said' — "at the very foundation of all wherein we have to do with God." And first — let us remind ourselves that that which has been passed in review, is a matter of pure revelation. Nowhere but from the Bible do we know anything about Adam, or our relation to Adam. We enter here into God's domain, which is the domain of mystery. We are on ground where our business is to believe and adore — not to question. Indeed we are not to expect that any explanation of so profound a fact as the imputation of the sin of Adam will, or can be perfectly satisfactory. Philosophers who are wise in the affairs of this world assure us that a full explanation of anything is an impossibility. In every department of knowledge, if we go a few steps from the bare fact — from what is visible on the surface, we come to an absolute mystery which none can explain. Ask THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 255 the most learned surgeon to explain the motion of the hand. He tells you of the muscles — of the nerves — the brain, but when you ask him what is the precise connection — how the brain acts on the nerve he can no more tell you, than the most ignorant savage. Facts, we can know — but, when we undertake to go behind them, we shall find that, but a few steps will bring us to the dark gulf of an unresponding and fathomless mystery. To the question, — how is the federal constitution to be reconciled with reason, — the first answer must be — It is none of our affair to reconcile it with reason. It is beyond reason. It belongs to the region of the incom- prehensible. We receive it simply because God says it — not because we see it to be just — we knozv it to be just because it is a part of the ways of the just and holy God. We know it to be just and right and holy, but how it is so, we may not be able to see. If we are going to wait until we understand everything we must give up the thought of salvation. "You cannot comprehend," says Luther — "how a just God can condemn us for the sin of Adam. The answer is, God is incomprehensible throughout and therefore His justice, as we'd as His other attributes, is beyond our measure and must ue uncomprehended. It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims — 'Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God — how un- searchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out' — now, His judgments would not be past finding out, if we could always perceive them to be just." But — receiving and believing the fact on the simple ground of the Divine testimony, we are at liberty to ponder the fact and harmonize it with other considerations which go to shed light on its justice : and 1. One is that either v.e must r.uvv be suffering for the sin of Adam or else zvc are mffenng for nothing at all. If Adam did not sin and if we are not punished for Adam's sin — then coming into the world independent of Adam we are punished for nothing at all — we find our- selves children of wrath — shut from communion with God — corrupted, depraved — involved in ruin and going down 256 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. to death, for nothing at all. That that is more reasonable more just — that that is better than God's explanation, who will contend? 2. But again Adam stood in a natural relation to his race, as the head and father of his race, — why should he not be selected to act for them? In case of Angels each stood for himself, yet they fell — why not then introduce another arrangement and, since it had appeared that holy beings- -endowed with every possible advantage for obey- ing God's law, would disobey it and ruin themselves, — why not — instead of leaving us, like the angels to stand for ourselves, — appoint a covenant head or representative to stand for us ; and enter into covenant with him? 3. A third consideration is that Adam was an adult. Now with a race propagated by marriage, either they must be tested in a perfect adult specimen — fully alive to his re- sponsibility and with full powers, — or they must be tested one by one — each as a little babe groping his way from infancy to childhood, and liable to be seduced and ruined ere he is aware of what he is doing, or of wdiat conse- quences are being entailed. 4. A fourth consideration is that the principle of repre- sentation runs through the world. The father is the legal representative of his children during their minority — what he does, binds his family. The heads of a nation represent it so that their declarations of war, or of peace, or their treaties bind it. This principle is so fundamental that it cannot be set aside. Every popular election proves that a constituency is to act through a representative and to be bound by the acts of a representative. Nor does the abuse of the principle in the hands of unworthy and self seeking men, destroy the principle itself. Human affairs could not move on nor society exist without it. Founded in man's nature, and by God's wisdom, we are obliged to recognize it. What wonder, then, if we find it inaugurated in Adam? 5. And further — had we been present had we and all the human race been brought into existence at once — and had God proposed to us, that we should choose one of our number to be our representative that He might enter into covenant with him on our behalf — should we not — with one voice, have chosen our first parent for this responsible THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 257 office? Should we not have said: "He is a perfect man and bears the image and likeness of God, — if any one is to stand for us let him be the man,'* Now, — since the angels who stood for themselves, fell — why should we wish to stand for ourselves. And if it be reasonable that one stand for us — why should we complain, when God has chosen the same person for this office, that we would have chosen, had we been in existence, and capable of choosing ourselves? 6. And again : The fact that we go on to break the covenant and disobey the law of God, shows that we are one with Adam and under his covenant. If not, why do we not repudiate Adam — refuse to sin — stand out in opposi- tion and be holy? If we have nothing to do with Adam and are not in bondage through Adam — why not break the chain? But, 7. And finally — let us be careful how we find fault with the representative principle, for our justification is made to depend on it. The doctrine of the substitution of Christ in the place of His people — the imputation of their sins to Him and of His counter righteousness to them is the central doctrine of the Gospel. But the doctrine of being saved by Another is only possible on the ground that we are lost through an- other. The two stand or fall together. There is then a loophole of escape. Inasmuch as our fall was not, at first, a personal one — for we fell in Adam ; it becomes possible for us to be recovered by a second Representative — Another Adam can undo the ruin made by the first. The Lord Jesus Christ coming to stand in the place of sinners, it has been said: "O Thou, in heaven and Earth, the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath ! Be thou in Adam's room. As, in him, perish all men So in Thee As from a second root shall be restored As many as are restored — without Thee none His crime makes guilty all his Sons — Thy merit Imputed — shall absolve them who renounce Their own — both righteous and unrighteous deeds, And live, in Thee transplanted. — and from Thee Receive new life," 258 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. As Christ our substitute was made sin and yet never sinned, so are we made righteousness though we have never been righteous. As we were condemned for what one man did without having a hand in it so are we justified for what Another Man has done without having a hand in that either. So, though, in one view, it is a most unhappy thing that we should all have fallen by the one head, Adam — yet here is the mercy of it — it left a way open by which we might be restored — for if we fell by one Adam there remained the possibility of our rising by Another Adam — even by the Lord from heaven. If the disobedience of one representa- tive was the first cause of our being regarded as sinners then it became possible that the obedience of Another and a greater Representative might enable God to regard and to treat us as righteous. Are we then disposed to ask "was this just?" Let us not ask a question which, answered in the negative, would prove the end of every hope — let us not cavil at what is so greatly to our advantage — let us not quarrel with the only possible way of Salvation. Rather let us bow before what we can- not understand, and accept it with gratitude. Let us say to ourselves : "Blessed is the man whose transgression is for- given— whose sin is covered — Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile." I dare not question the perfect justice of my fall in Adam ; I should be most unwise if I did, for by doing so I might cast some doubt upon the justice of my rising in the Second Adam ; and what other way of rising is there possible for me, or possible for any one of us? And one more thought in this connection — as it was by one act of Adam — not by all his sins — but by his first sin — simply and solely — we were ruined, so it can be that by one act only — one single, simple act of faith in Jesus Christ tve can be saved. Oh, the splendor of this doctrine — "As the judgment was by one offence to condemnation, so the free gift is of many offences unto justification." Because it came upon us by Adam with no sin on our part — so it can come upon us by Christ without any merits or doings, or being or works of our own. Salvation is a free gift bestowed upon men without anything on their part to THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 259 deserve it. When God saves a sinner, it is only as a sinner that he is saved. He has simply as a lost sinner to look to and trust the lost sinner's Saviour and the fact is accom- plished. If thou believest on the Lord Jesus Christ, my brother — God saves thee — and saves thee completely, un- conditionally and forever. It is said that Queen Elizabeth was once asked to pardon a person who had made an at- tempt on her life. She felt she could forgive the man but she said: "Now, if I pardon you it must be on certain con- ditions." The man at once answered — for he was a Scotch- man who had done what he had done in the interest of Mary Queen of Scots — he answered, quoting from an old and sound divine: "Grace on conditions, your Majesty, is no grace at all." "That is so," said the queen* "then I will pardon you without any conditions," and thereby she made out of an enemy — the most loyal of subjects for the rest of his life. We are saved then at once and for nothing — by a simple acceptance of it in Christ. And this, let us know, means actual acquittal. We are not held in suspense. The instant we trust Christ and commit our interests to Christ — we are out of Adam and beyond condemnation. From that instant God saves us in Christ. Our punishment has been borne by Another and our sin has been put away forever. "It is finished" is Christ's own declaration. The righteousness that God re- quired of us has been perfected by Another — even by our Great Substitute and He has wrapped that robe around us and we may wear it — the peace of God within us sweetly singing: "In my Surety I am free His dear hands were pierced for me With His spotless vesture on I'm holy as the Holy One." "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," and we are in Him by trusting Him. Is there not some one here who never has done it, who feels he can trust Him to-day? 260 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. SUBSTITUTION. BUSINESS PRINCIPLES AND THE ATONEMENT. Rom. v:i9. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." In the Palace of Justice at Rome, they take you into a chamber painted with frescoes — covered on the ceiling — on the walls — and even on the floor beneath your feet, with seemingly distorted, grotesque forms. You cannot reduce these forms to harmony — you cannot make out the per- spective. It is all a bewildering maze of confusion. But there is one spot on the floor of that room, and only one spot — where, if you take your stand, each line falls into harmony — the perspective becomes perfect — the picture flashes out upon you instinct in each line and panel. You can see at that point, and only at that point, the design of the artist who painted it. The same thing may be said — within an infinitely higher range of observation — of the Cross. The world is a be- wildering maze looked at from every point except that one — mysteries hem us in and crush us until we take our stand at Calvary. Then darkness and discord become harmony and light — then mysteries are solved — then night, which shut us in with murky clouds, becomes radiant with cer- tainty and clearness. The Atonement is the centre and the moral Pivot of the activity of God. The Atonement is God's great business and it is the business — norm. For business means action and it means, specifically, moral action. To be, is to live — to live, is to act. Business then, is the pulse of the universe. When we say, "God's chief end is Himself," we mean, God's business is to un- fold, display His attributes and manifest His glory. When we say, "Man's chief end is to glorify God," we mean, Man's business is to seek and to promote God's glory. Business is simply right moral activity. Business every- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 261 where, therefore, is built on integrity. What is sometimes distinguished as "mercantile' or "commercial" integrity does not differ from any other integrity. The soul of business is honor. Business is right action looking to a right end. If not, we say of it, "That is not business," meaning, it is not legitimate — right, straight- forward moral action. The soul of business is honesty — having things plumb at the centre and making things square. There is no such thing as success along lines that are crooked. The history of the world proves this. The history of all advance in sciences in arts, in the steady and rapid accumulation of the best products of industry and skill, in the solid growth of capital, goes universally to show that this advance is not the result of fraud and dishonesty, but of obedience to principle — of working in subjection to recog- nized and undisputable moral standards — to laws which, however they may be exceptionally and even, at times, glar- ingly broken, inevitably revenge themselves and fling in- iquity beneath the wheel. For however much rascality there may be in the world, and there is rascality in it, two facts are certain : One, that the world is built on God's plan — that it runs in the grooves of His thought. "The earth is the Lord's." He made it and He controls it." That it did not make itself, and that it does not run itself is plain. Its forces are His movements. Its laws are simply His "ways" — the carrying out of what He Himself is and must be. That is one fact ; and the other one is that no business can live and flourish in this world by injustice and wrong. "Where is a single business house," inquires a trenchant thinker, "that has been built up and stood through the cen- turies buttressed in dishonesty?" There is not one. The very thought is absurd. The whole machinery of God is arrayed against such a business and sooner or later will hurl it to the ground. Has not the zvorld long since rec- ognized this ? Has it not framed for its own selfish ends the maxim, "Honesty is the best policy?" Victor Hugo said, "Napoleon failed at Waterloo not because of the rain of the previous night, and not because of Blucher's delay ; but be- 262 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. cause he embarrassed God." So business men fail when they think they can ensure success by business methods that embarass God. These things, which are true in the sphere of the seen and the natural, are not less true in the sphere of the unseen and supernatural. Could God swerve at the Centre — in what is beyond us, — could He deny Himself — could He prove un- true to His principles — to His personal perfections — His character would fall and with it His Kingdom would fall, and the universe be a ruin. God's transactions must, for His own sake and for our sake, square. No man can have comfort with regard to a business transaction unless it is seen to be square, and this truth applies with ten-thousand-fold force when it comes to that highest transaction of all, the rectification of the relations of sinners to God — the payment of the infinite debt which they owe Him. The Bible puts the Atonement as a quid pro quo. There is no compromise about it. There is no subterfuge about it. There is no discount of price. There is no attempt at making an impression that justice has been satisfied and the claims of Law and moral Government met, when none of these things is the fact, but the whole a theatrical sham — a business canard — a poetical fiction. There are many ways, especially in modern times, of putting the Atonement, but we prefer to put it as the Bible and as the Old Divinity would do, that "we are bought with a price." "We believe that, in and through the Blood of Jesus, we have redemption and that we are ransomed from destruction by the Mediator's death — the Lord Jesus having bought us by the suit and service which He rendered in our place and stead." And we do not hesitate to speak plainly even in face of certain pretentious preachers, whose custom it is to ridicule the Old Theology and to raise objections against what they are pleased to call the "mercantile theory of the Atonement." As if there could be any other theory of the Atonement. As if the thoughts of purchase paid and satisfaction ren- dered do not enter into the very essence of a redemption? As if there could be a transaction for us between Christ as our Surety and God our Father, justly incensed with us on THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 263 the account of our sins, which was not square — which did not turn upon the exact meeting of the claims of justice by an Atonement adequate, equal — offered on one side — ac- cepted on the other — perfect and complete. So, at least, St. Paul regards it ; and so he puts it. He is not afraid of the mercantile theory, of a commercial atonement, for he says, "Ye are bought!" and to make it more explicit he says, "Ye are bought with a price!" An- other Apostle, St. Peter, compares it to payment of silver and gold. This is putting it strongly no doubt but putting it quite in accord with that other Old Testament fiat, "De- liver him from going down to the pit — I have found a ran- som !" We believe, in close analogy with all other Divine and human transactions, in a satisfaction which satisfies — in an Atonement which truly atones — in a transaction of trans- fer and payment in which an equivalent was given and a possession secured. We believe, then, in no "cloudy phan- tom-like atonement which did something or nothing, and was a mere exhibition without any real results ;" but we be- lieve that Jesus died for and in the place of His people to "redeem us to God by His blood" — so that the chant of heaven is no idle rhapsody and the fact we rest on is no empty dream. We believe that Christ has so expiated our guilt — has so paid the debt of His chosen, as that God Himself must be unjust and dishonored forever, if He does not honor to the full the Bill of Exchange which Christ has put into His hands. In other words, we believe in the actual substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner, to meet all claims, whether of precept or penalty, upon the sinner — to obey as well as to die for the sinner — to make up all accounts of every kind and all our liabilities to God-ward — so that the exchange and transfer are complete. The sin of the sinner is laid over on the Son of God — "the Lord hath laid on Him, the iniquities of us all" ; and the righteousness of the Son of God is laid over on the sinner. "He hath cov- ered me with the robe of His righteousness." So that those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ — who accept Him as their substitute, stand, at once, in all His rights — in all his righteousness in which God omnis- 264 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. cient cannot see one spot or flaw — that is to say, as it is written — "He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." So that — to put it again and even more clearly if pos- sible— I standing before the Law of God, a fallen sinful child of Adam — one on whom that law lays its commands but who constantly breaks and cannot keep it — Christ comes in and keeps it for me, obeying all His lifetime in my room and sealing this obedience, at last, in the vermilion of His precious Blood, or to clench it in the language of the text — "As by one man's (Adam's) disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of One (of Christ) shall many be made righteous." An Atonement, four square, quadrating with all the re- quirements of God — as long as the law — as broad as the law — as high as the law — a cubic righteousness, a Founda- tion of which it is said — "the length and the breadth, and the height of it are equal" — this, on strict business-princi- ples, is the Atonement of God. I owe a debt and Christ pays it. Not 2 cents in the dollar — nor 10, nor 25, nor 50 cents, nor 99 cents and 99 mills, but 100 cents in the dollar — All I owe — All, all I owe! And a debt paid once, is wiped out forever. "If Christ has my discharge procured, And freely in my place endured The whole of wrath divine; Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine." And we will make bold to say, at this point, that every right minded, honest moral being in the universe will not only give in to, but choose and praise such an atonement. And we will go even farther and say that displeasure with such an atonement — unwillingness that God should be just — the disposition to demur — to question, to cavil at — and set aside such an Atonement seems sadly and seriously to betray interior moral obliquity. Perhaps the man who ob- jects is not, in his own business, square. He is an adven- turer it may be — a speculator it may be — a gambler in grain THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 265 or in stocks it may be, his are fast and loose business ways — he lives bv encroachment it may be — by taking advan- tage, by legal, skilful, unsuspected frauds it may be — His own business methods are wrong, how can he be pleased with and ratify God's? NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT. The character of the Atonement as a quid pro quo ex- change and permutation, being thus made clear, let us proceed to consider more carefully what is its nature, what are its parts? and I. Its Nature depends on our need. This is brought out in the word "Disobedience." Adam, in Eden, wrecked us. Standing there as our first Father and Representative, he broke God's law. That breakage involved two things : Commission and Omission. 1. It involved the commission of sin. It therefore in- volved penalty. Adam was a criminal from the moment he sinned and he was sentenced and doomed from that mo- ment— "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Adam then was to die. That was one effect of his dis- obedience. But if he dies, he cannot save himself — he dies, that is all. Dying in his own place and for himself he is damned. For this reason no one has ever held that the Atonement is one's dying for himself — going up upon the cross and hanging there and shedding his own blood to save himself. Bad as men are and self-righteous as they are and heretic as every man, by nature, is. upon this point of merit — no one has ever gone so far as to preach suicide as salvation. Instinct tells us that the suicide so far from being saved is doubly damned. We cannot, then, die for ourselves, in atonement for Adam's and our disobedience. We must have some one to die in our stead. 2. But that is not all. Adam's disobedience involved not only Commission of sin but Omission of righteousness. God had said to man, "Do this and live!" Had Adam, in- 266 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. stead of sinning, kept on obeying God, he would have kept his original perfection — he would have earned heaven for himself and us, and he would have been confirmed as a holy and happy being forever. But, by sinning, he lost this — i. e. he lost character and he lost power. If I cut the veins of my wrists, I not only sin against my body, but I make my arms powerless. Adam shed his life out so that he was powerless and no longer able to perform perfect works. But he was bound — none the less — to perform perfect works, for he was made perfect and God's law did not change with his fall. The law is the same, to-day that it ever was, and, like God, it is perfect, but Adam and we are fallen and cannot any longer meet the law with perfect works. Some think, we can. They think the fall in Adam has not injured us any — that there was no fall. That men are as holy, or may be, if they choose, as holy as Adam was and as the angels are. Therefore we can bring perfect works and are bound to bring them, and are justified in that way. This sentiment not only contradicts the text which says that by Adam's disobedience many were made sinners — sinful creatures, but it contradicts the guilty consciousness of man which cries, "The Law is holy and the command- ment holy and just and good but I am carnal — helplessly sold under sin." Some think that if we cannot bring perfect works of our- selves and by nature, yet we are by baptism and by the Church, introduced into grace, and that then by our works we can merit and do merit eternal life. Christ's Blood pays up for our past before baptism, and buys for us grace and then we, using this grace, merit ourselves, for the future. This notion also flatly contradicts the text which says that, as by the disobedience of one — his act and not our act, we were made sinners ; so by the obedience of Another, His act and not our act, we are made righteous. Besides, a perfect law demands perfection — imperfection cannot merit, and "there is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not" — sin vitiates and nullifies his good. The same thing may be said of the opinion of others who modify this and teach that, in virtue of the work of THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 267 Christ, "God has entered into a new covenant with man, the condition of which, instead of being, as before, per- ect obedience, is Faith and Evangelical or Gospel obedience — i. e., that we are to trust Christ and do the best we can, and, if we hold out and do not fail, God will have mercy," — all of which sets aside the obedience of One, by which, and and by which only and instantly, and everlastingly we are made righteous. It also kills integrity in God by relaxing His law and sinking its requirements to the level of the sink- ing sinner, until no law is left and no obedience. Now right perpendicular and opposite to this — the con- trast is the absolute and perfect, flawless Divine righteous- ness of Jesus Christ in the sinner's place and upon which alone he is justified. Man sinned — he therefore is no longer innocent — man did not keep the command, he therefore is no longer righteous. In that which he committed and in that which he omitted his original character was completely wrecked. The Lord Jesus came to undo the mischief of this fall for His people. So far as their sin concerned their breach of the command, that He has removed by His precious Blood. His agony and bloody sweat have forever taken awav the consequences of sin from believers, seeing He, by His one sacrifice, bore the penalty of that sin in His flesh. Still it is not enough for a man to be pardoned. He, of course, is then innocent — washed from his sin — put back again, like Adam, in Eden just where he was. But that is not enough. It was required of Adam in Eden that he should actually keep the command. It was not enough that he did not break it, or that he is regarded, through the Blood, as though he did not break it. He must keep it — he must continue in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. How is this necessity supplied. Man must have a righteousness or God cannot accept him. Man must have a perfect obedience or else God cannot reward him. Should He give heaven to a soul which has not per- fectly kept the law : that were to give a reward where ser- vice is not done; and that, before God, would be an act which would impeach His justice. What then is the right- eousness with which the pardoned man shall be completely covered, so that God can regard him as having kept the 268 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. law and reward him for keeping it? Surely none of us are so besotted as to think that that righteousness can be wrought out by ourselves. Surely we must see, at once, that that righteousness must be wrought out for us by Another — and that other, One equal, yea Divinely equal to the emer- gency— namely the Lord Jesus Christ. II. This view of its Nature, has already brought into dis- tinctness the parts and perfections of the Atonement. There are three parts: i. The washing away of our sins in Christ's Blood — the making us innocent. "The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 2. There is the meriting of heaven for us. An innocent man merits nothing — he is only innocent. Suppose a criminal in prison is pardoned and set free. That pardon and freedom do not make him President of the United States — or enroll him as Senator — they give him freedom — that is all. So washing us from our sins only puts us back where Adam was — innocent. Then, Heaven must be merited for us by an active obedience, as Adam must have merited, had he won it. That Christ does by His obedi- ence as God for us for 33 years — the period of a genera- tion— of a human lifetime.- The ground on which we go to heaven, therefore, is a perfect ground — a pavement and a platform, every stone in which was laid by the meritorious actions of Christ, who was made of a woman, made under the law and who, so made, earned salvation for the sons of men and thus is called — "The Lord our Righteousness !" When the believer, then, gets heaven, he gets it as the wages of Christ's work, not his own. Not one thing does he contribute either to get or to secure his heaven. Christ does it all for him — earns it all — and he has it for nothing — a gift. 3. The Person doing this — the substitute of the sinner is not only man representing him, but the Eternal God. Down out of the midst of the Trinity descends the Second Person — ineffable Diety — ineffable glory. The work which He does for us is the work of God for us — surely that will stand for everything. The Blood which He shed is the Blood of God for us — surely the Blood of God will wash THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 269 out anything — will answer everything. Surely, as we gaze upon the matchless perfection of this gift and provision of God — thus freely to save us — grace must constrain us each to say "Upon a Life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die, Another's death — Another's life I cast my soul eternally. "Bold shall I stand in the great day, For who, aught to my charge can lay? Fully absolved by Christ I am From sin's tremendous curse and blame." We must believe then — for there is no alternative — that the righteousness in which we must be clothed, through which we must be accepted, and by which we are made meet to inherit eternal life, can be no other than the surety-work, the substituted work of Jesus Christ. We therefore boldly assert, according to the Scripture, that the Life of Jesus constitutes the righteousness in which His people are clothed. His death washed away their sins — His life covers them from head to foot — His death was the sacrifice to God, His life was the gift to man by which man satisfies the de- mands of the law. From the first moment when Christ lay in the cradle until the moment when He ascended on high He was at work for His people. He obeyed for us in His life and said to His Father, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Then He completed the work of Atonement in His death, and knowing that all things were accomplished He cried — "It is finished" — "He was, through His life, spin- ning- the web of the royal garment, and, in His death. He dipped that garment in His Blood. Tn His life. He was gathering together the precious gold — in His death He hammered it out to make for us a garment which is of wrought gold." In Russia I saw the Emperor's Coronation robe: — it was of woven threads of gold — when on him he shone lustrous as if all gold — so, With His spotless vesture on, "I'm holy as the Holy One" — God says of me — "The King's daughter is all glorious within — her clothing is of wrought gold." 270 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. This is the Bible doctrine of the Atonement. It quadrates. It squares. It is a transaction and payment worthy of God. Like as in the ancient Tabernacle where the Brazen Altar exactly corresponded in its dimensions with the curtained chamber which contained God's Presence, so now and so forever is the Altar equal to the Holiest. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, has accomplished — "Who died the just for the unjust to bring us to God — who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." Christ is God's sufficient answer to all the soul's need — Christ now — Christ for us, as we are, sinners; as we are at our last and our lowest — Christ and not our efforts — not our anxieties — not our penances — not our punctilious observ- ances, "It is not thy tears of repentance nor prayers, But the Blood that atones for the soul ; On Him then who shed it, thou mayest at once, Thy weight of iniquities roll." I have read a lovely story which for illustration I will give you as I close: A little girl in Switzerland lived with her parents on the side of one of their lofty and beautiful mountains. A deep chasm separated this from the neighboring Alps, and into this chasm a huge rock had fallen and lodged, so that it formed a natural bridge. One day when about to cross on the rock-bridge the mother saw that it was loose and just ready to fall. The frost had loosened it. She told her little child that if she ever crossed it again it would fall and she would be dashed in pieces. The little girl thought, "I will not step on the bridge," and ran gleefully away to gather the wild flowers which grow in profusion — the Alpen-rosen, the Himmel-blumen on the Alps. She wandered on, so busily engaged that she had come quite near to the bridge before being aware. Just at that moment she saw her father coming toward her and found he intended crossing the bridge. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 271 "Father!" said she earnestly, "Mother says the rock is loosened and will fall if you step on it." "Nonsense, child," said he. "I crossed it before you were born. It is quite safe — I must go to my work." "Oh don't — please don't step on it," said she. "It will fall, I know it will." But the father only laughed and persisted that there was no danger. The little girl, almost wild with distress, cried, "Father, father! Stop. Promise me one thing. Promise me, if I die you will trust in my Saviour." She knew her father was not a Christian, for he was a profane, careless man. She herself trusted Jesus and knew she was safe, and determined what she would do. She ran ahead of him and leaped upon the rock and sure enough it went down, and with it went the little girl. The trembling father crept to the edge, and with eyes dim with tears gazed widly on the wreck and the crushed form of his dear little child. She had died for him. He was safe. She had suffered and bled in his place. This thought led this father to Jesus. He knew that his little girl loved the Saviour. He knew she knew that he did not — that he was not prepared to die. In her great love he read a deeper mystery — how God commendeth His love to us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. How we are safe by what Christ has done. How we must trust Him and how He, in love, takes our place. Brother, sister, have you learned that? 2-J2 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. GRACE AND WORKS. Rom. iii:28, 31. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: Yea we establish the Law." One great reason why the Christian life is not undertaken or, if undertaken is found to be so unsteady, — lies in the cloudiness which, to so many minds covers and obscures the entire subject of religion. One great reason is the want of clearness. I do not say this is the only reason. Let the Gospel be made as clear as the sun in heaven — the principle as clear as a straight line between two points — the certainty as solid as a rock beneath the feet, and yet there is an attitude of mind which will refuse the overture, and refuse under a light clearer than noon-day. There is such a thing as being once en- lightened— as tasting of the heavenly gift — as being a par- taker even of the powers which lead to conviction and decision — and yet crucifying to oneself the Son of God by an open, definite rejection of Him on any terms whatso- ever. I once met a man brought up a Presbyterian — educated at Princeton — who told me that he was out and out for the devil in the controversy between him and Christ — that he believed Cain was right — the serpent in the garden right — ■ and God all wrong. There are few such men in the world, thank God — few Luciferians — few, who knowing who Christ is, deliber- ately spurn and reject Him. But a vast number are clouded as to precisely what is meant by the work of Christ — what it does for those who accept it — what is meant by faith and what is the ground of assurance. Let me then emphasize, from the texts chosen, these three points : THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 273 I. That we are saved simply on and for the Righteous- ness of Christ. II. Our holiness is to be drawn, by faith, from Christ as our Substitute. III. That such a holiness transcends all other holiness in the sight of God and man — rather poor works on this principle, than splendid works on any other. I. Then, we are saved simply on and for the Righteous- ness of Jesus Christ. Grace is the Essence of the Gospel. The one hope of a fallen world, it is the sole comfort of saints looking for- ward to glory. The Gospel is "good news" — "glad tidings," but it is no good news to say that God is just, though He is just — ■ or that, being just, He will punish sin and reward right- eousness. The Good News is the announcement that God is pre- pared to deal with guilty man, on the ground of free favor and of pure unmingled grace — that God will blot out sin, cover the sinner with righteousness as with a robe, and receive him as acceptable — persona grata, in other words, as a beloved Son — not on account of anything he has ever done or will do, but out of sovereign mercy acting altogether independently of the sinner's own character or deservings. The point is "By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified and taken to heaven. It is not because of anything in them or that ever can be in them or of them that they are saved; but only because of the boundless love, good- ness, pity, compassion and mercy of God. In other words, "Sinner'' is the reason of the Gospel's existence. It is for sinners it was planned and provided and it is to sinners and not righteous, good and moral men it is offered and comes. The Gospel is before the Results of the Gospel. The results of the Gospel are penitence, a broken heart, a new heart. The Gospel does not come to those who have these things. Such are saved already — they do not need the Gospel, 274 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. The Gospel is a provision for people who need it — who have no goodness whatever — no fitness whatever — whose only qualification is this bare, beggarly description, "Un- godly !" "He justifieth the ungodly." "It does sound surprising, does it not," says one, "that it should be possible for a holy God to justify an utterly unholy man? We, according to the natural legal- ity of our hearts, are always talking about our own good- ness and worthiness, and we stubbornly stand to it that there must be something in us to win the notice of God. Now God, who sees through all shams and deceptions, knows there is in us no goodness whatever. He says, "There is none righteous, no not one." He knows that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags ; and therefore the Lord Jesus Christ did not come into the world to look for goodness and righteousness among men; but to bring goodness and righteousness with Him and bestow them on those who have none. He comes not because we are just, but to make us so — to bring the unjust to God, to One who justifieth the ungodly." But the Good News goes farther and tells us How God can do this. It sets forth Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God as the Ground. "So can God be just!" Hozu can God be just? By exacting the full penalty on the cross and so saying to Justice "Your claim is answered," and then by turning to the sinner and saying, "The claim against you is answered. The receipt is nailed to that tree." I have made Him to be sin for you — who knew no sin — that you might be made the righteousness of God — as righteous as I am Myself — in Him. This, then, is the Gospel of the grace of God — that God is able, without injustice, to deal with men in a way of pure mercy — altogether apart from their sins or their mer- its, because their sins were laid upon His dear Son Jesus Christ who has offered to Divine Justice a complete satis- faction, so that God, while glorious in holiness, can yet with a glory untarnished justify and accept the ungodly. It is clear then that we are justified by what the Lord Jesus Christ has done out and out. Our title to heaven lies only in Him. Nothing that will ever be in us or from us THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 275 can enter into the ground on which the gates of heaven swing open to you and to me. What is God's motive in this? Every wise man, in act- ing, has a competent motive. What are His reasons for saving a sinner purely by grace? One reason, no doubt, is to reveal His full nature — to tell out His very heart. That, while there was no motive to move Him outside of Himself, His own pity moved Him so that He found a way bv which His love could have vent and flow forth to the worst of sinners — to those who sit in the thickest gloom of despair. "I, even I, am He that blot- teth out thy transgressions for my own sake. Not for your sakes do I this," saith the Lord God, "but for My Holy Name's sake — because I will not have this human race which I have created for My own glory, utterly ruined and lost." But again, God finds a motive in Christ — that He may glorify Christ. God, from all eternity has determined to fill heaven with souls who shall owe it only and wholly to Christ that they are there. For this reason, in the Gospel, He says: "For Christ's sake — and not because of any agonies or tears or sorrows on your part — I will remove your sins as far from you as is the East from the West. Come now and let us reason together ; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. You may come to Jesus just as you are, and I will give you full remission upon your believing on Him. Look not zvithin to search for any merit there, but look unto Him and be saved. I will bless you, apart from merit, according to the atonement of Jesus Christ. Look not to yourselves either, for any strength of future life. I am your strength and I will be- come your salvation. You are invited, not because you are good but because you are bad — not because you are strong, but because you are 'without strength' — not because you are hopeful, but because you are hopeless." You are invited to Christ to be kept. Not to keep your- self, but He engages to keep you, to put His Spirit within you, to put right dispositions within you, to watch and guard and save you at your every step. Anxiety is over the 276 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. moment you conclude to trust Him. From that mo- ment, He takes care of all. Then, when you get to heaven you will join with all the ransomed in the one refrain, "Not unto us !" "Not unto us !" You will owe it all to Christ. Another reason God has for the Gospel plan is that He may save men by faith. There is no other way of saving men, for nothing, but by a simple consent on their part to be saved in that way — i. e., by faith, by trust, by believing. "Tell me hozv I can be saved," says one. "Tell me quickly — tell me truly." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." God asks of you no good works, nor good feelings either, no work of the Spirit in you first, no re- pentance or regeneration begun. The Gospel is not "Be born again and I will save you." Can any give himself a second birth? Regeneration is God's work — a secret work — a work unconscious to the subject — a work revealed in my willingness. Before I was unwilling — now I am willing. That is the New Birth. "Who is he that is born again but he that believeth," says St. John. If thou believest thou art saved. God has made that the simple, the only condition. "It is of faith that it might be of grace to the end that the promise might be sure," says St. Paul. How could God's promise be sure if it rested on anything I am to do? But now, it is of faith alone in order that it might be sure. We are saved, then, simply on and for the Righteousness of Jesus Christ — that is the first point. Now, II. Our Holiness is to be drawn, by faith, from Christ as our Substitute. We are not to look inside of ourselves for our holiness, but are to hang upon Christ for our holiness — trusting only for thoughts, desires, feelings, emotions and activities to Him. This is what St .Paul means when he says: "I am crucified with Christ — identified with Him, / am dead to myself and my efforts. I am crucified with Christ — yet now I live — I never did live till now, but now I live and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." The apostle drew all the springs, impulses, motives and energy THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 277 of his living from Christ on Whom he hung in a helpless de- pendence. Let us consider this manner of living a little at large — let us studv it a few moments — and 1. The fact appears from the entire teaching of the New Testament, and especially from the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. In each of these Epis- tles he begins by laying down the principle of justification bv faith alone, as the fountain, spring and original of all life. Then, as a consequence of this principle he exhorts to holy practice and a godh- conversation. In these words, he carries out, everywhere, the doctrine and the logic of the text, "A man is justified by faith only — does this make void the law? God forbid" — as no other principle — "it es- tablishes the law." I am saved by what the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered and done in my stead — am I, then, free to live as I list? By no manner of means. For the faith with which I trust on Christ is no dead faith — no insincere and "say so," fancy faith, but an honest, lively and reponsive faith — full of re- ciprocal movement and action — i. e. it hangs on Christ and draws on Christ continually, and lives more and more the life of Christ by producing the fruits of it. A man does not work to be saved, but, because he is saved, he works. Because now the law cannot touch him to condemn him but, being satisfied, is on his side and therefore his friend, therefore he delights in the law — the purity of it, although he cannot perfectly keep it. The faith, then, which justifies, is full of works, but these works do not come into justification. They are after results and attendants of a believing, loving confidence in Christ. When Abraham went up into the mountain to lay hold upon the mystery of that Substitute Ram in the thicket, which was a type of Atonement — when he went up to see and rejoice in Christ's day — a day of Salvation — he said to his servants : "Stay here, at the foot of this hill till I come again to you." Servants Abraham had' — attendants, but they stayed below, and so when a man goes up into the hill of justification — that high Moriah of free grace, he takes only his faith with him and says to all his works and duties 278 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. — "You do not enter here. Abide below while I go yonder and worship, then I will come again to you." 2. The fact that our holiness must flow from faith only is clear, again, not only from the teaching of the Apostle as to this special point, but — more comprehensively — from the whole scope of salvation. How, in the first place, did sin come into the world? Simply by the guilt of Adam imputed to all his posterity. All the wickedness in the world may be traced back to the one disobedience of Adam. Precisely so, all the holiness in the world proceeds from the imputation of the righteous- ness of Jesus Christ to those who believe on Him. His righteousness becomes theirs, and it is by resting on His righteousness that they feel moved to work and do work in the same direction. In other words, a sense of freedom changes a servant who is servile to a son whose life is one spontaneous devotion. "To see the Law by Christ fulfilled And hear His pardoning voice Will change a slave into a chlid, And duty into choice." A woman might serve a man for wages ; she might earn them or she might not earn them — that would not make her his wife. Marriage is a free offer. She cannot earn marriage. But suppose now she is married and trusts and loves her husband, — it is not a question of wages, or of making marriage sure. She will give and do for this man what money cannot buy. That is the difference between the sons of Adam trying to be justified by morality — by keeping the law — and the sons of God justified already by faith which is in Christ Jesus. 3. The same fact might be argued from the very action of the law which is to turn a man in upon himself. A man can never live to God who lives to himself, and, so long as a man seeks justification by his own doing and work- ing he lives to himself in himself — a life of introspection- of self contemplation — of comparing himself — to their dis- advantage— with those around him. "Therefore," says the Apostle, "I desire not to be found in mine own righteous- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 279 ness which is of the law — I desire the righteousness of Christ — to be always looking for justification to Christ." 4. A simile used by our Saviour throws light on the text. "I am the vine, ye are the branches." How much does a branch have to work to get into the vine? How much does it work to bear fruit after it is in the vine? It is in the vine simply by hanging from it, and it brings forth fruit simply by drawing in sap. It does not look at all to the budding tendril, or grape at its extremity — it looks only to the stock from whence it gets its life and power. 5. The fact that holiness, devotedness must come from faith may be argued, once again, from the broad platform of gratitude. It has been said, perhaps not often, that the Doctrine of Free Grace leads to licentiousness that if men know they are saved they will take liberty to sin — they will run riot in iniquity for that grace abounds. This has been said, but only by men who never have tried it. No Christian has ever said: "Let us sin that grace may abound," — and even men who are not Christians have rarely ventured an assertion so diabolical as this : "God is merciful — He is good — therefore let us treat Him as badly as ever we can." If God is good to the undeserving, some men perhaps will make His goodness an excuse for running into sin — but there are others and always will be — of another order — whom the goodness of God leads to repentance. They scorn the "beast-like argument" — that the more loving God is the more infamous we may become. They feel that against a God who saves them freely, it is a dastardly thing to rebel. Our Holiness, then, must come and only come — by faith, from Christ as our substitute. This fact established, let us notice. III. And briefly — fchat such a holiness transcends all other holiness in the sight of God and man — Rather poor works on this principle than splendid works on any other. One thing; the principle gives all the glory to God. Everything for us — in us, or of us, that qualifies for heaven, is of God. 280 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Suppose it otherwise — suppose I am to trust Christ to open the way for me — to make it possible for me to be saved, and then I am myself to make that possibility actual. Suppose I am to trust in Jesus and then do the best I can and live consistently — with the proviso that this doing the best I can — this consistent living, enters in as a factor to save me. Who does not see, in such a case, that really I save myself? — Since all my trusting Christ amounts to nothing — without my own obedience? If, then, on such a double ground I am saved, I do not owe it all to Christ, but a part and a good part to myself. I therefore cannot give all the glory and credit to Christ. It would not be right. In justice to myself I must say: "I owe it to Christ, but also to my own exertions that I am in heaven !" Who cannot see how this introduces discord into the song: "Unto Him that loved us and washed us in His own Blood — to Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen !" The man who trusts to Christ alone to save him prefers to be saved on a ground that is nobler than any other. Suppose a man offers me a $50,000 house and lot for nothing and I consent to take it for nothing and owe it all to him, — do I not do him a greater honor than if I were to say: "This house and lot are worth $50,000. You offer to give it to me. I accept the offer on the condition that I earn and pay down $50 — then I can say, / bought it in part." What should we think of such a proposition as that? It looks mean enough, put that way, does it not? Yet that is precisely what men say when they say "We are saved, for what Christ did, provided we do something too — the best that we can." The man who trusts on Christ only, swings off on God's promise only and, now and forever, gives all the glory to God. For my part, I would rather be saved by Christ for nothing and give Him the glory, than have any works of mine come in to spoil it, if I could. But Once again, and finally — Poor works upon this principle of grace are better, every way, than splendid works on any other. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 281 What does a man care most for in his wife or child? Confidence. It is not that the woman does so well, or ill — that she is this, that or the other, — that she is beautiful, graceful, accomplished. Better a woman with a plain face who trusts you implicitly, than a woman who looks like an angel and don't. Better a woman with few accomplish- ments whose whole heart hangs upon you in a loving faith, than one who is perfect in all that she does and yet cannot believe a word that you utter, or trust you out of her sight. What a man asks from his child is his confidence. It is not that the child helps his father — All the child does may have to be done over again but he does it out of love and the father accepts and praises even a paltry and good for nothing performance. Your little girl 4 years old writes you a letter. It is nothing but a scrawl. You cannot make head nor tail to it — but down in the corner, in great, wide misshapen capi- tals you read K, I, S and you see a round mark where her lips have touched the paper — and you call that the finest letter you ever received in your life, — not because it is fine in itself, but because of the motive — "She hath done what she could." She did not write the letter in order to be made your daughter, but, becouse she is your dear daughter now. Now I have tried my best — in very plain words, level to every mind present — to show each man and woman and boy and girl within this house that to be a Christian is just for a poor, helpless, death-doomed sinner to accept and rest on Christ and leave the rest to Him — to hang upon Him by faith to save us and to keep us and fill out, purify and energize our lives. Who, this morning, will do this Saviour the honor of trusting his soul in His hands? What shall I do to be saved? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." No wit nor art of man will ever find a crack or a flaw in that answer or ever devise another and a better answer. It takes in the whole duty of man, — his first duty — his one duty — his indispens- able duty. There is no middle way between Belief and Un- belief— for we must know that believing on the Lord Jesus 282 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Christ for salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedi- ence to His law without it — while unbelief — refusing to believe is the most provoking to God — and the most damn- ing to the man — of all his sins. My last word is this: The simplest trust on Christ to save — that is honest — will save any man's soul. If not — if he won't trust Him, he ought to be damned, and he will be — "He that believeth not, shall be damned." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 283 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA AND THE EFFECT- UAL CALL. John iv :26. "Jesus saith unto her — I that speak unto thee, am He." The chapter before us this morning, must be considered not only as "one of the most soul-winning parts of God's Word," but as combining — with its direct application — in a most wonderful manner the grand and distinguishing doctrines of grace. All through the chapter, and under- neath our Lord's Interview with the Woman of Sychar, were the invisible lines of those Eternal fundamental truths which constitute the Christian system. In following those lines, I take it — we shall come to a better apprehension of what the Divine life is and how we are to obtain it, than in any other way. Regard then, I pray you, three things in this chapter — Predestination — Helplessness and the Effectual Call. I. Predestination — "He must needs go." It was a moral need, not a physical need. The ordinary route from Judea to Galilee was not through Samaria, but skirting it and on the other side of the Jordan. The Jews, avoiding as much as could be, complication and even inter- course with the mongrel Samaritan people, took the easier and. if a little more roundabout — more comfortable way which led through Perea and Decapolis to the southern shores of Gennesaret. The "Need" was a moral one. He must needs go that way because it had been decreed that He should go that way, and because there was an Elect Soul in Samaria whom He must rescue. We shall never understand the Gospel unless we go back to the primal truth of Predestination which puts God first — ■ which makes the choice His before it is ours and which — 284 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. in due time — brings His grace to bear upon us with its irresistible power. For, we must understand that in the work of Salvation the Three August Persons of the Holy, undivided Trinity are equally engaged. We shall never see things rightly until we see God the Father in Eternal Covenant choosing from this fallen race of ours a multitude whom no man can number and giving them to Jesus Christ, His Son. Nor shall we ever see things rightly until we see Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Father, receiving that people on condition that He should redeem them, by His Blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, — into which mutual agreement the Holy Spirit also entered pledg- ing Himself, in due time, to move upon and draw home to Christ, all who were thus in Eternity given Him of the Father. This truth we find made very clear and explicit in the Holy Scriptures — as in Ps. lxxxix:io, and 4 — "Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy Holy One and saidst, I have laid help upon One that is mighty — I have made a covenant with my chosen — I have sworn to the Beloved My Servant, Thy seed will I establish forever and build up Thy throne to all generations." So again in Isa. liii :8 where we read — "For the transgression of My people was He stricken," and again — vs. 10: It pleased the Lord to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief: when He shall make His Soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed ; He shall prolong His days and the purpose of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. So too and more explicitly in the New Testament, as Eph. i :3~5, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ, accord- ing as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him ; in love having predestinated us unto the adop- tion of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." Election is of persons — Predestination is of things. All the great movements of the universe are regulated by God's will, — But, if the great movements, then the small move- ments, for the great depend upon the small. It was predes- THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 285 tinated that our Saviour should go through Samaria be- cause there was a chosen sinner there. And that sinner was a chosen sinner for if not she never would have chosen God, or known of Jesus Christ. The whole machinery of grace was therefore set in motion in the direction of one poor lost sinner, that she might be restored to her Saviour and to her God. That is what we wish to see in our own experience, my beloved. To look back of ante-mundane ages and date our eternal life from the covenant — to say: Father 'twas Thy love that knew us, Earth's foundations long before ; That same love to Jesus drew us By its sweet constraining power, And will keep us Safely now 'and evermore. What came from eternity will last to eternity, what came from yesterday will last only till to-morrow. See now the depthless comfort wrapt up in the doctrine of election. A nut it is, with a rough shell, but the most delicious of kernels. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, there- fore with loving kindness have I drawn thee !" Have I reason to believe that grace has touched my wandering and wayward heart — my hard heart, my lost heart and melted and drawn me? Then I have reason to believe that God has loved me with an everlasting love, and if so, He will not cease loving me to-morrow — nor next year — nor 10,000 years from now. Eternity compels eternity. I will never leave thee — I will never forsake ! We thus understand why the Lord most needs go through Samaria. There was an elect soul there — one of those given Him from eternity, by the Father, whom He must save. Dear Brother, dear Sister, — if you are one of God's people there is a "needs be" put on Jesus Christ to save you. If you are still unconverted, He will have you yet. However you struggle and contend against Him — however deeply, as this woman, and in the very same way you may be sinning, He will overtake and conquer you — He is even now on the way. 286 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. You see, Jesus was before-hand with this woman. He was at the well first. The woman knew nothing about Him. She did not expect Him. She did not expect to be converted that day. That was the last thing she did ex- pect. She ventured out to draw water at noon — a most unusual hour, in order that she might not be seen. A woman like her — shunned by other women, did not care to meet any one. She took an odd time to get to the well, — "No one will be there," she said. Poor lonely creature — Poor lonely desolate heart ! WONDER OF WONDERS ! There was One there to meet her — One who had been waiting for her — "Sitting thus on the well." Jesus knew all about her. He was there waiting. He could hardly wait. Everlasting love, pent up in Him, could hardly restrain itself — So impatient was He to win this poor, lost one to purity, to hope, to heaven. Jesus was first. He always is first — as He was with Zaccheus — as He was with Saul on the road to Damascus — as He was with Lydia when He opened her heart. Jesus is first — the Alpha, the Genesis, the beginning of everything good. Good there is not in us — not one right thought — not one penitent longing — not one slightest will- ingness to trust till He inspires it. God must begin. Nature can never rise above itself — Water in a reservoir will never lift itself above the brim. There must be the touch of the Lord upon us — there must be the pressure of the Holy Ghost upon us before we will either ask or act. We do not know this at first. We find it out afterward. We pray as if we were praying of our own motion — We trust as if we were trusting all of our- selves. And it is our business to do so — to ask and to act as if there were no Holy Spirit at all. Afterward we come to realize that there was a previous motion of the Spirit in our heart before there could have been a motion of our heart to Christ. In the woman of Samaria, there is no question of our Saviour's seeking her before she ever thought of seeking Him, THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 2S7 " 'Twas not that I did choose Thee For Lord, that could not be; This heart would still refuse Thee, But Thou hast chosen me. " 'Twas Sovereign mercy called me, And taught my opening mind; The world had else enthralled me, To heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none above Thee, For Thy rich grace I thirst ; This knowing, if I love Thee, Thou must have loved me first." II. The second thing in the story is the woman's help- lessness. "Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink!" His intention was the living water. The woman could not understand that. She took Him literally as meaning the dead water of the well. She did not even give Him this. She never gave Him anything. If salvation is to depend upon our giving God anything, we are lost already. We can never give Him anything that is spiritual. It is not in us, nor can we procure it to give. Our Saviour began by saying to the sinful woman, "Give Me to drink!" That was to put her face to face with her helplessness. Afterward He said : "If thou knewest the gift of God thou wouldest have asked of Him." Preachers and teachers sometimes say, "Give your heart to Jesus." It is right enough to give Him our hearts. We must do it — rather we will do it the moment we trust Him. But the Gospel is not "Give your heart to Christ and you shall be saved." The Gospel is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." When we do that we will be sure to give Him our hearts by and by if not at once. "Give your heart to Christ," says one, "is law rather than Gospel." Salvation is not by your giving anything to Christ, but by His giving something to you. Glad I am if you have given your heart to Christ, but have you learned first this lesson that He gave His heart for you? We do not find 288 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. Salvation by giving Christ anything. That is the fruit of it — but salvation comes by Christ giving us something — Something, did I say? By His giving us everything, by His giving us Himself. I am afraid that a good deal of Sunday School teaching — I do not say among us — but in general, has been, "Dear child, love Jesus." That is not the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to trust Jesus." The fruit of salvation is love but love is not the way. We are not saved by love which is a feeling but by faith which is not a feeling but a definite, intelligent act. The way of salvation is to take Christ — to trust Christ. When we are saved, the proof of it will be that we will give our hearts to Christ, — but let us not make a mistake here, and turn things upside down and put effect for cause, lest, begin- ing with a little blunder, we should go on to greater error and set up again the ruinous doctrine of Rome which once sank the whole world in darkness — the doctrine of salva- tion by sanctification — by something in me which I bring to Christ — by love which faith works and not by faith which works love. We never preach the Gospel until we point the sinner — any sinner, the dead, the cold, the careless hesitating sin- ner straight to Jesus Christ to save him. Not by anything in himself, but by everything outside of himself is he saved — not because he is trying to be better, or because he has some good desires, — but — like this woman, sin-stained — at his very worst and lowest, at the 6th hour — i. e., in extremis — 6 means dead-failure — he is to trust Christ. Ragged, penniless, forsaken, desolate, forlorn, with no good feelings and with no good hopes we are to trust, just as we are, over on the one only solid foundation — Jesus Christ and leave it all with Him. Recollect that the Gospel is preached not to saints, or to people who partly are saints — who have a little love in their hearts — a little right feeling — some incipient sanctification, — Not at all. It is to an empty sinner with an empty water-pot — just a lost sinner and nothing but a lost sinner, that a full Christ is presented — a Christ who died not for the good that is in us but for the bad that is in us. It is not to people who are try- ing, but to people who have tried and broken down, that lesus Christ is preached — to whom, naked, they are to come THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 289 for righteousness, and empty for all they require. Jesus Christ and His work is the Bridge which fills every inch and hair-breadth of the way — for the vilest sinner out of hell, from the spot where he is standing — to the highest glory which surrounds the throne. The call is, Look unto Me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth — "all ye devil's cast-aways" — as Whit f eld put it — all ye selvage edges and worn out ends of creation — The call is to trust. Let us notice, then, III. That call — that effectual call, for there are calls that are not effectual. There are men who have heard the pure Gospel preached all their life-time who nevertheless have lost their souls, and gone down to perdition. There were many such men under St. Paul's preaching for he says : "We are unto God, a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things? Again he says: "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Multitudes of men heard Lu- ther preach who themselves were never justified by faith. Multitudes heard Whitfield preach who were not perman- ently affected. Under Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the plainest, certainly the most awful preacher America has ever known, there were men who steeled their hearts and would none of it. The Word of God mentions two kinds of calls : One general which is given sincerely and lovingly to every one who hears the Word. The Commission reads : "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." The trumpet of the Gospel sounds aloud to every man in all our congregations, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and with- 290 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. out price. Unto you O men I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." This call is sincere on God's part ; but man is by nature so opposed to God — so dead in sin — so stupefied with carnal- ity— so fascinated with the world, that he never heeds it, or, if startled, shakes it off again. No man was ever saved by the general call of the Gospel. Its only effect is to con- demn those who hear it — to leave them without excuse be- cause they will not take up with a free, kind offer on God's part, but will refuse it and perish. The universal call is universally rejected. It is addressed to freewill, for man fancies he has a free will — but free- will in man acts only one way and that is in opposition and enmity to God and against God. It can act only that way for free-will was ruined in Eden, and now is a slave. The universal call is all that it ought to be as a call — but it needs a change in the man. It is not attended with that Divine force and energy of the Spirit which makes it an unconquerable call. It comes with the common influences of the Spirit which — however powerful and alarming — men may resist. It does not come with the irresistible force which makes it effectual. It falls flat and men perish under it, howover loud and clear, or urgent and persuasive it may be. Not so the effectual call — the call which this woman of Sychar received ; that is "a special, particular, personal, dis- criminating, efficacious and unconquerable call." It is a call given to God's chosen and to them only. They, by grace hear it and obey it and cannot resist it. They do not wish to resist it, for they are made willing in the day of God's power. Such a call was that given to Lazarus when he came forth from the dead. Such a call was that given to Paul on the road to Damascus, when — struck from his horse, — "he fell down," as Toplady says, "a Free-wilier, to rise a Free-gracer" and give all the glory to God. But this call — while in all cases equally effective — is not always, nor most times, with a shock. It is not always ar- resting— like a blast of dynamite, as in the case of the Philippian jailer, a brutal hardened man, the kind of man who in trouble is ready to stab himself to the heart — dying the death of a coward and dog. But, it is oftener gentle — THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 291 almost unconscious ; opening the heart — as Lydia's was opened, softly — like a morning-glory to the rising sun. Thus the call came to the woman at the well — indirectly, gently apparently along natural lines, while working its sure and blessed result. Consider for a moment the manner of the call. It pro- ceeds in a way of light, of conviction — of revelation. And, I. In the way of light. No doubt there are people who know what salvation means and who deliberately reject it. But there are many more who do not know what it means — to whom, if you speak of being saved at once and entirely by what the Son of God has done in our behalf, you speak a strange language. This woman's only notion of religion was something which she ztras to do herself — a worship on a certain mountain and with certain ceremon- ies— "Ye worship," said Jesus — "Ye know not what." Many will be lost through ignorance. They do not know — they do not care to know. Shrewd, quick, intelligent, investigat- ing, they are, as to other subjects, but religion, with them, gets the go by. To all such, the word comes, solemnly, as to the woman of Samaria — "If thou knezvest the Gift of God — What it is — what it is worth to thee — that Hell may be escaped and Heaven had for nothing — thou wouldest have applied to the Great Giver and He would have giv^n thee the living water, the water which relieves, refreshes, satisfies — peace — a new principle — indestructable, eternal. Light, in this lower world, comes in by degrees. Were the sun to rise all at once in noon-tide splendor, he would blind us. The Carthaginians tortured Regulus by cutting off his eyelids and keeping him in a dark cell for three days — then instantly bringing him out into the sunshine. The Lord, in bringing us to Himself, deals with us in infinite mercy. It is said in one place — "His going forth shall be like the morning," — Little by little black night gives way to gray twilight and this to growing, glowing, rosy dawn. So is it in spiritual things. Our Saviour gently leads us. Gently, He led this woman. First by an indirection — Jesus saith unto her, "Give Me to drink." "When you are fishing," one has said, "it is not always wise to throw the 292 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. fly straight at the fish's mouth. It is better to try him a little one side — then you may get a bite." Our Saviour threw the fly one side, and yet so skilfully along the current of the woman's thought that she was immediately interested. He did not frighten her by saying — "You are a sinner !" Nor did He overwhelm her by saying : "I am the Messiah," but — since she had come for water and was thinking about water, He spoke of water as the most natural subject — thus gliding by a subtle gentle sympathy into this woman's "deeper musings ere she was aware." And mark again : This gentleness of Jesus. There is nothing stiff or starched about Him — nothing cold and chilling as there sometimes is with people who would like to do us good. There looked through every feature of His blessed face and glistened in His mild blue eyes such a deep, real interest and heartfelt love that the woman, though she did not wish to meet Him, and though she was prejudiced against Him as a foreigner and Jew, — melted little by little. The ice around her heart began to thaw. She felt, "Here is One who cares for me and who can understand." Mark again, right here, the promptness with which the Lord addressed her. He not only used great tact and ten- derness, but He struck while the iron zvas hot. How often we fail at this point. We procrastinate — we are afraid to speak — we hesitate, and the occasion goes by as it did with Dr. Chalmers when he passed a pleasant evening at his country-house with an unconverted friend. He thought that he ought and that he would speak to him about his soul, but deferred it. In the morning he was shocked to find that his friend — during the night — had suddenly passed away. Our Lord knew that He would never see this woman again : — that it was now or never, — and so He did not wait until she had drawn the water from the well and was about to go, — and so give her an excuse for saying: "I cannot stop now — I must get home with the water and the sun is hot," but — before she could draw the water, or get in any excuse, He seized the occasion and saved her. "In all this — what a wonderful wisdom. No wonder that Jesus in Prov. viii, is called wisdom — "I, Wisdom," He says, "dwell with prudence." THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 293 But this wisdom becomes more apparent when we see how Jesus finds occasion to address this woman alone. He sent His disciples away. He would not have the men about. He could never have said to her what He did had any one else been there. He did not bare her sore and shrinking heart before the eyes of men. Never before, nor after did He allude to anything in her life which might put this woman to embarrassment or shame. What He knew and she knew, He kept to Himself and only spoke of it to her in private as a physician might because He must, to bring her to true conviction of sin. That is the second step in the process. The woman car- ries it with a high hand. She begins to spar — to cavil, to fence with our Saviour. She raises one question about His being a Jew — another about His being greater than Jacob. She turns the conversation this way and that way. She finds objections — difficulties. The more immoral people are the more difficulties they find with religion. All their difficulties would be gone. All their objections would van- ish— all their excuses would evaporate like water, the mo- ment sin — the secret sin which they know and which they fondly hope they alone know, were put away. Jesus therefore leads up to the sin. He does not charge the woman with it but He leads her to accuse herself. Jesus saith unto her, "Go call thy husband and come hither.'' The woman answered and said "I have no husband." While she says it, she tries to look unconcerned — as innocent as possible — but the guilty flush steals over her face in spite of all attempts to keep it back. Deeper, deeper, darkens the crimson. She falls in a collapse. Her wretched effort to keep up appearances fails her. And with her whole diseased unclean and wicked heart exposed, — that desperately wicked heart — that helplessly incurable unhappy heart, she drops at His ^eet and cries, "I need a Messiah — a Saviour." That is the 3rd step and climax — Jesus reveals Himself as that Saviour. He had been growing upon her with every question and answer. The humble weary Jew had become greater than Jacob — greater than any prophet. Now He stood revealed as God the Saviour — the complete, the only Saviour — "I that speak to thee, am He!" 294 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "Before the eyes of faith confessed, Stands forth a slaughtered Lamb; He wraps me in His crimson vest, He tells me all His Name." The woman looked up confidingly into the face of Jesus. From that moment He became everything to her. She trusted Him for the living water — for the everlasting life — that He would save her, and keep her, — that He would give her a new heart — new and welling up affections. In fact, she felt differently toward Him already. She knew that He would carry on what He had now begun, since everlasting life means, life to everlasting. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 295 THE SECOND BIRTH— A FACT, A MYSTERY. John iii :y. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." The new birth is a transcendent wonder. No wonder like that wonder! Creatures as a rule — subjected to probation — when they fall, are left where they lie fallen. It was so with fallen angels, — they were left in ruin. But man, fallen, becomes a singular and a unique exception. Un-made, he is re-made. Marred as a vessel of clay, he is revolved again upon the Heavenly Potter's wheel and turned out a vessel of honor. The new birth is an unspeakable change ! It is the greatest of wonders. Physical birth is a wonder. Death is a wonder. Creation is a greater wonder. But none of these changes equal, for momentousness, the change which the Bible describes as new birth. In neither of these changes, — physical birth — death — creation, is anything fixed as to destiny. All men are alike born — both saints and sin- ners. Both classes alike die. All things and beings are alike created. Mere creation does not determine whether Lucifer shall finally turn out a seraph, or a devil. But, the new birth fixes the future. It is. of all changes, the most radical. It splits the difference between Heaven and Hell. He who has it goes to the one place, — he who lacks it, goes to the other. How awfully solemn, therefore, is the question, "Am I born again?" Have I ever under- gone that change radical which makes over my entire na- ture? that change which is as great as if a demon now in perdition should be transformed into a bright and holy angel. The Bible divides the entire world of men into two classes, — only two classes, goats and sheep. The goats are at the left hand — the sheep at the right. Between them, there is a great, invisible gulf. Have I passed over that gulf ? Am I a sheep, or have I still the goat-nature ? 296 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. "Ye must be born again," said our Saviour. The change is imperative. "Except a man be born again" — born, not only as all men are from below — from the flesh, but born avaoSev — from above; born not only of water, as John's disciples were born, but born of the Spirit, as John's dis- ciples were not, — Born not only by the Spirit, but born a spirit — i. e., the thing born is a spirit — a new nature, — Born over again — anew — from the very beginning. All this is involved in the Greek words employed by our Saviour. Nowhere, in the whole Bible, is a single statement put so strongly, or insisted upon with so emphatic a repetition as this — "Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, — That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, — Marvel not that I said unto thee — "Ye must be born again." Men, now-a-days are saying: "Back to Christ" — "I do not care what Paul says — I do not care for the Epistles, I go back to the Gospels !" Well ! here we are in the Gospels. Here we have Jesus Christ in the forefront and beginning of John's Gospel, and His first dogmatic assertion is, "Ye must be born again !" Can anything be more important than to ask what this means? — What is the description, the nature, the necessity, the origin of the new birth ? I. Then, let us seek out its description. In the compari- son of spiritual things with spiritual, how do we find the change which our Saviour calls a new birth represented? It is spoken of as regeneration— itaXiv "again" and yewedia "birth" we find that in Titus iii 15 "The washing of regeneration." It is also spoken of in the same place and described as the "renewing" of the Holy Ghos ava xaivcodi? the making over from the start. The same change is spoken of as xrldis a "creation" — "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation — so we read "created anew in Christ Jesus." But the Word goes farther and speaks of the change as a resurrection — "a rising again from the dead" THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 297 and St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:19 that it is as great an operation of Almighty power as was that which wrought in Christ when He was raised from the dead. He prays that the Ephesians may understand this. The new birth is also spoken of as a quickening — "You hath He quick- ened who were dead in trespasses and sins. In a line with this, St. John speaks of the new birth as Sitipv-a., a seed dropped into our fallen humanity which springs up within it as a flower might spring up from the bosom of a corpse from a grave. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." The flesh in him may, but the new principle cannot — "for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God." Light is shed upon this by the contrast of the two natures, — the old man and the new. "The natural man and the spiritual man," says St. Paul. And St. Peter tells us that the new-born are partakers of another, even a "Divine nature}' hazing escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The same thing is represented in Ezekiel's description — "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh.' Such are the terms employed — such is the description — let us now go on to inquire a little more particularly. II. As to the nature of the change. What is intended? What it is not and what it is. It is not a change in the very substance of the soul — as if my soul were taken out of my body and another soul put in its place. It is not a change in the constitution, or in the faculties of a man's soul, as if it were no longer, in every sense, what it teas — a human soul. The change is not of the faculties but of the qualities of the soul. Nor is it morality — a reformation of the soul. It were a blasphemous thought to imagine that the Son of God speaking to Nicodemus — that high-toned, cultured ruler of the Jews, — and speaking on the most important of sub- jects, meant to insinuate that he did not yet know that a man should be moral. What then is the change? It is an infusion of something 298 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. into the soul. In every birth there is a germ infused and so in this one. It is the implanting in us of a supernatural, permanent, fixed principle — something that never was in us before and never again will be absent. It is the infusion of a new quality. If something could be infused into a man's veins that would change his blood from red to whiter — while still his blood remained blood — that possibly would be an illustration of this change. It is the infusion of a new spirit. Fallen man has a soul and a body but the spirit in him is dead. It died in Eden. He is not therefore any longer a trinity. In the old Tabernacle there were three things: The Holy Place — that represents the body. The Holy of Holies — that represents the soul. Then there was, inside the Holy of Holies, what was called the Shekinah — the presence and glory of God shining out through the vail. That Shekinah was after- ward withdrawn leaving the Holy of Holies empty, and so the spirit, the third part, or element in man has gone out of his soul. The new birth is the restoration of this — the infusion of a spirit born of the Spirit. The new birth again is a change of the instincts of the soul — not of its faculties but of its quality — of its deepest desires, tendencies and disposition. A goat, in some re- spects, looks like a sheep — in size, in horns, both are small cattle — but there is. a vast difference in disposition and in instincts between a goat and a sheep. One is coarse, lust- ful, vicious, — the other, gentle, chaste and tame. A raven and a dove are both birds and much alike in shape, but the raven loves carrion and the dove loathes it. The new birth is the opposite of original, or inbred sin. Inbred sin does not destroy the substance of the soul, but it alters its qualities — so that the soul, before holy, becomes a depraved, polluted, sinful soul. The new birth, the opposite of this, makes the soul again holy. It brings in a new nature which contends with and replaces the flesh, the viti- ated fallen nature. It is like Isaac born into the tent where there was only Ishmael before. Now Ishmael and Isaac will contend until the tent — i.e., the body falls and Ishmael is cast out. The new birth is the giving of a new heart. We know what that means. We say of such a man, "He has a good, THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 299 a kind heart." We do not mean the physical organ. We say of another, "He has a hard and cruel, wicked heart." We mean that his disposition is so, that it is in him to be hard and cruel, as it is in the other man to be kind. God aims at the heart. He does not so much hate our sins as He does our sinfulness. What we hate in a serpent is not simply that he bites, but what he is. The new birth is the communication of a life. Every child has a parent. If I am a child of God, God is my parent. We have links between the son and the father back to Adam. So in regeneration, there is a life communicated — even the very life of God who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. We are as certainly partakers of the Divine nature by our second birth as we were of the human nature by our first birth. There is nothing fanciful about this. It is real. It is a product. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is a creature; the Holy Ghost is not a creature. And with this new life we get its propensities and in- stincts. The new nature, being born of God, cannot but love God. There is a complete shifting of feelings, hopes, desires and aims and aspirations : — Rivers to the ocean run, Nor stay in all their course; Fire ascending, seeks the sun, Both speed them to their source. So the soul that's born of God Pants to view His glorious face ; Upward flies to His abode To rest in His embrace. The nature of the new birth sheds light. III. On its necessity — "Ye must be born again." This is involved in the fall. By the fall, man's nature was cor- rupted— we mav even think that a Satanic virus entered into the human constitution when the lips of Eve touched the part of the apple where the serpent had bitten. We are fallen creatures. That means that we are unspiritual creatures. Not that some have not offended against morality more seriously, than others — not that some have not sinned 300 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. more deeply and terribly and damnably than others, but that all men by nature are alike unregenerate — not that some are not singularly and exceptionally beautiful and amiable and lovely. It is said that our Saviour, looking upon the Young Ruler, loved Him. He must have been loveable in some real sense of the word, if the Lord loved him, but he was not in the kingdom of God at that time, nor was he ever in it. Loveable and lovely, as he was, he was not born again. The same necessity appears from the character of holiness and heaven and from the fact that a man to be happy must be in correspondence with his surroundings. I have some beautiful gold fishes at home in a glass receptacle, the gift of a dear friend. Those gold fishes enjoy themselves and give enjoyment in their own element. It is a pleasure to watch their graceful movements in the water and amid the ferns. But take them out and lay them on a golden platter exquisitely chiselled — garnished with roses, — fill the air with music, would they be happy? They would be in tor- ture because out of congeniality and correspondence with their surroundings. So would it be with an unregenerate soul taken to heaven. The rarefied air of its holiness would be torture — its music — the constant praises of God an exquisite pain. "A profligate in the house of prayer," says one — "a giddy worlding standing by a deathbed — a drunkard in the com- pany of holy men, feel instinctively that they are misplaced — they have no enjoyment there. And what enjoyment could unregenerate men have in God's kingdom on earth, or in heaven? Even the outward service of the Sanctuary below is distasteful to them in proportion to its spirituality. So long as preachers keep by the pictorial and illustrative, and speak of the seasons of the year — the beautiful earth and the ancient sea, mountains and plains, rivers and lakes and fields and flowers and sun and moon and stars or treat of conduct and ethics, they comprehend the discourse and applaud it, but when the deeply spiritual and eternally im- portant form the theme and the preaching becomes more direct, they feel restless, uneasy or listless and declare it to be dull, prosy and uninteresting. If we cannot enjoy a spiritual discourse, it must be we are lacking in the THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 301 spiritual sense — for 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.' But the Necessity of the new birth is put beyond inference and beyond a question by the fact that God has said it. Not only would God have to change His nature before He could admit us to heaven, our nature being unchanged, but He has put the ultimatum — "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the knedom of God." What use to try to scale the battlements of Paradise when God has said, No! The Nature of the new birth and its Necessity, point us away then, — in the IV place to its Origin, its Author. Of course, if it be a Divine nature that is to be communicated — a nature from God, the work must be Divine. It is not therefore effected by Baptism, nor by any ex- ternal rite. Simon Magus was baptized — but St. Paul after- ward says to him — "I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." Nicodemus himself was circumcised which was a symbol of the new birth, but Jesus says to him : "Ye must be born again !" Nor is the new birth a matter of heredity. Some men run away with the notion that because their parents and forefathers have been in the faith, they, therefore, are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. But grace does not run in the veins — "Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abra- ham to our father." is the solemn protest. Aaron Burr was the son of one of the holiest ministers who ever lived in this country. His father Aaron Burr was the first president of Princeton and his grandfather was Jonathan Edwards, yet he died an infidel and in infamy. One generation may be the very opposite and contrast to another. No, grace does not run in the veins — "which are born," says St. John, "not of blood !" Nor is the new birth a product of the will — the result of effort or of resolution. A man can no more regenerate himself than he can cause himself to be born. It is a matter out of the range of human power. Can water rise above its own level? So, that which is born of the flesh cannot by any self -evolution become anything else. Noth- 302 THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. ing can come out of us but what is in us and that is evil and only evil and that continually. "It is not of him that will e thy says St. Paul. "Which were born not of the will of the flesh," says St. John. Nor does the new birth come by the will of other men. We have a saying that any man can lead a horse to water, but no ten men can make him drink. It is not a matter of pressure or force, nor is it a matter of persuasion. We might force a person to make a confession of faith but un- less the Spirit of God made him willing, our will — brought to bear, would be nothing. It would effect only a counter- feit. "We may listen to the preacher, God's own truth be clearly shown ; But we need a greater teacher, From the everlasting throne, Application Is the work of God alone." See now how St. John sums up these points in the 1st chapter of his Gospel. "As many as received Him to them gave He ability ekovziav the right as well as power to be- come the sons of God — which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh — nor of the will of man, but of God." Men are born again of God. God sovereignly interposes. Something is infused. In the salvation of every person there is an actual putting forth of Divine power whereby the dead sinner is quickened — the unwilling sinner is made willing — the desperately hard sinner has his conscience made tender and he who rejected God and despised the Gospel offer is brought to cast himself down at the feet of Jesus. It is a Divine work and it is a gracious work. When God puts a new heart into a man it is not because he deserves a new heart — because there was anything good in his nature which could have prompted God to do it. His own love prompts him. His own mercy prompts him. Nor is it be- cause the man cries for a new heart. No man ever yet did cry for a new heart until he had one. If you are cry- ing for a new heart my brother, my sister — if you are seeking it earnestly, wistfully, .tenderly — the germs of the new heart are in you already — the new heart is there. THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. 303 The new birth once more is a victorious work of grace. When God begins the work of changing the heart, He finds everything against Him. The man rebels, he struggles against God. He is determined not to be saved if he can help it. Then God overcomes him, He melts him. The man thinks better of it. God resistlessly conquers him at last. The new birth once more is an instantaneous change. It must be if it be a creation. Something is, where something was not. In one solitary instant — swifter than the lightning flash God implants in the springs of my being away down below my consciousness, the new nature. In this I am passive, then instantly I am active. I become converted. Conversion is my work turning to God. Regeneration is God's work turning me. I turn because I am turned, be- cause I am made willing. Regeneration is the secret cause. Conversion is the first overt effect. "Herein," one will say, "is a mystery." It is granted it is a mystery. The Scriptures declare it so. It is a change unintelligible — a change so much above our power that we cannot even understand how it is produced. It is a birth. It is a hallowed thing to be born. Natural birth is a mystery. Spiritual birth a yet more solemn mys- tery. It is a mystery. We do not understand it. No man ever yet understood it. Thank God we do not need to understand it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit." It is a mystery, and that drives us out of ourselves to God for its realization. It is a mystery and therefore we are not to occupy ourselves with it and pry into ourselves as if we could discover and build on the New Birth for salvation. The New Birth we must know and own as a fact, but we must not build on it for peace. Not the work of the Holy Spirit within us, but Christ's work outside of us is the ground of our peace. We know that the operations of the Spirit are necessary but they are never set forth as that on which our peace depends. For that — for salvation we must look away as helpless sinners to Jesus. Is that discouraging? How is it discouraging? 3